The official weigh-in ahead of tomorrow night’s huge DAZN PPV card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has taken place, and the big men of the sport really did raise some eyebrows with their respective weights. Joseph Parker, who will as we know now face very late substitute foe Martin Bakole, had the unusual experience of weighing-in alone. Bakole, a late replacement for an ill Daniel Dubois, is still to touch down and arrive in Riyadh, the Congolese giant taking an 11-hour flight to Saudi Arabia upon getting the Parker fight.
Parker, 35-3(23) scaled a career-heaviest 267 pounds. Parker looked solid, though, the hard work clearly having been done in the gym and on the road. There is plenty of speculation regarding what Bakole may weigh when he does take to the scale, but it seems likely the challenger for Parker’s WBO interim title will be above the 300 pound mark.
Bakole, 21-1(16) will be a very real threat to New Zealand’s Parker, but the big question, other than what his weight will be, is how fit will he be? Bakole had not yet started his training camp for his scheduled March fight with Efe Ajagba.
Agit Kabayel and Zhilei Zhang will also be contesting an interim heavyweight title tomorrow, the WBC interim belt. And both guys looked in fine physical shape as they stood on the scale moments ago. Germany’s Kabayel scaled 241 pounds, while “Big Bang” Zhang, the older man by nine years at age 41, came in at a whopping 287.5 pounds.
Zhang really is a massive guy, but he has shown a tendency to gas out in a fight if it goes into the later rounds. Might this happen against Kabayel tomorrow? Zhang is predicting a KO win, while Kabayel is saying that he too will “bang” his opponent in the ring.
All the other fighters in tomorrow’s card weighed-in with out issue, with Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol making the 175 pound limit fine. The light-heavyweight rematch is of course tomorrow’s headliner. Bivol scaled 174.1, while Beterbiev was 175 on the nose.
The other fights are:
Shakur Stevenson came in at 134.1 for his fight with Josh Padley, who scaled 134.
Carlos Adames scaled 158.1 for his fight with Hamzah Sheeraz, who weighed 159.
Vergil Ortiz came in at 153.1 for his expected war with Israil Madrimov, who was 152.1 on the scale today.
Callum Smith came in at 174.1 for his fight with Joshua Buatsi, who scaled 175 even.
