By Chris Williams: IBF lightweight champion Richard Commey weighed in at 134.4 pounds on Thursday for his fight against 38-year-old light welterweight Ray Beltran for their fight this Friday night on ESPN at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California. The televised portion of the Commey-Beltran card starts at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT.
(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)
Beltran comes in overweight
Beltran came in 1.8 pounds over the lightweight limit at 136.8 pounds. The fight will still take place. What this means is Beltran (36-8-1, 22 KOs) won’t be able to win Commey’s International Boxing Federation lightweight title. If Beltran wins the fight, then Commey’s IBF 135 pound title will become vacant. That would be bad news for Top Rank, because they’re hoping to match Commey against the winner of the July 19th fight between Teofimo Lopez and Masayoshi Nakatani. If Commey beats Beltran, then he’ll fight the Lopez vs. Nakatani winner. The winner of that fight has a shot at facing Vasilily Lomachenko.
It’s not surprising that Beltan wasn’t able to make weight, because he’d been having problems making the lightweight division previously.
In Beltran’s last fight, he moved up to 140, and looked impressive in stopping Hiroki Okada in the ninth round last February. Beltran looked a lot stronger at 140 compared to in his recent fights at 135. That fight showed that it’s high time that Beltran move up to light welterweight on a permanent basis. However, it had to have been difficult for Top Rank Boxing promotions to resist putting Beltran in with Commey (28-2, 25 KOs), since they promote both fighters.
Beltran fighting at lightweight = bad idea
Top Rank really blew it by putting the Commey-Beltran fight together. They should have known from watching Beltran’s recent fights that he’s no longer capable of making the 135 pound limit without draining himself. Beltran has been fighting as a pro for 20 years since turning professional in 1999. Asking Beltran to drain down one more time to be the B-side opponent for Commey was a HORRIBLE idea.
This writer would have never made that move if I was the head honcho for Top Rank. Beltran looked great at 140 in his last fight. Why ask him to drain down to a division that he’s clearly outgrown? You’ve got to feel sorry for Beltran. Hopefully, he’s not a walking zombie on Friday night from the hard work he put into trying to dehydrate to make weight this week. If Beltran was able to fight Commey at 140, he’d probably beat him without any problems, but not at 135.
Last August, Beltran lost his WBO lightweight title in losing to Jose Pedraza by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision.
“Being a world champion is great. I went back home, and everyone welcomed me at the airport,” said Commey. “It was like a hero’s welcome. It was unbelievable. I just thank God for that. Every time I prepare for a fight, I don’t try to knock my opponent out.”
Commey, 32, blew out Isa Chaniev in two rounds to capture the vacant IBF lightweight title last February. At the time, Commey was heavily criticized for fighting an inexperienced Chaniev. It’s unclear what the IBF saw in Chaniev for them to rank him highly, because he was completely unprepared for a fighter of Commey’s level.
• Carlos Adames 154 lbs vs. Patrick Day 153.8 lbs
Other weights on the card:
• Raymond Muratalla 135.2 lbs Agustine Mauras 137.4 lbs
• Elvis Rodriguez 139.6 lbs Joaquin Chavez 141 lbs
• Saul Rodriguez 130.6 lbs vs. Miguel Angel Gonzalez 130.4 lbs
• Chris Zavala 129.4 lbs Prisco Marquez 129.8 lbs
• Dmitry Yun 135.6 lbs Jose Antonio Meza 135.2 lbs
• David Kaminsky 162 lbs Osbaldo Gonzalez 162.8 lbs
• Junior Fa 259.6 lbs vs. Dominick Guinn 234.2 lbs
• Ruben Rodriguez 145.6 lbs vs. Vicente Morales 147.4 lbs