UNCASVILLE, Connecticut – Afforded an additional seven pounds during fight week, Adrien Broner came in on weight Friday morning for his fight against Jovanie Santiago on Saturday night.
Broner stepped on the Mohegan Tribe Department of Regulation’s scale at 146 pounds for their 12-round welterweight bout. Santiago officially weighed 145.2 pounds.
Their “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event initially was announced as a junior welterweight bout. BoxingScene.com first reported Thursday, though, that the two camps came to an agreement to bump up the weight limit to the welterweight maximum of 147 pounds.
The 31-year-old Broner (33-4-1, 24 KOs, 1 NC) has stated during this promotion that he had to lose more than 35 pounds since he began training camp late in November. He’ll fight for the first time Saturday night since losing a 12-round unanimous decision to Manny Pacquiao in their WBA welterweight title fight in January 2019 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Cincinnati’s Broner is notorious for having trouble making weight. He was stripped of the WBA world super lightweight title for coming in overweight the day before his ninth-round knockout of Ashley Theophane in April 2016 at the D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C.
The contracted weight for his following fight – a 10-round, split-decision defeat of Adrian Granados – was changed from a catch weight of 142 pounds to the welterweight limit of 147 while Broner and Granados were toward the end of their training camps.
Puerto Rico’s Santiago, who’s also 31, has not fought at the welterweight limit since September 2015. In his most recent action, Santiago (14-0-1, 10 KOs) knocked out Peru’s Juan Zegarra (16-1, 10 KOs, 1 NC) in the first round December 19 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
That scheduled 10-rounder was contested at the junior welterweight maximum of 140 pounds. Santiago weighed exactly 140 the day before that fight.
Santiago replaced Pedro Campa as Broner’s opponent late last month because Mexico’s Campa (31-1-1, 21 KOs) tested positive for COVID-19.
Earlier Friday morning, heavyweight contender Dominic Breazeale weighed in at 261.2 pounds for his first fight in nearly two years, a 12-rounder against Otto Wallin. The 35-year-old Breazeale (20-2, 18 KOs), of Eastvale, California, will fight for the first time since former WBC champ Deontay Wilder knocked him out in the first round of their May 2019 bout at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Wallin (21-1, 14 KOs, 1 NC), of Sundsvall, Sweden, came in at 240.4 pounds. The 30-year-old southpaw stopped Travis Kauffman in the fifth round of his last fight, when Kauffman (32-4, 23 KOs, 1 NC) couldn’t continue due to a shoulder injury August 15 at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Breazeale-Wallin will be the second of three fights Showtime will televise Saturday night, starting at 9 p.m. EST and 6 p.m. PST. Before Breazeale and Wallin stepped on the scale, Robert Easter Jr. and Ryan Martin made weight for their 12-round junior welterweight bout, the opener of Showtime’s tripleheader.
The 30-year-old Easter (22-1-1, 14 KOs), of Toledo, Ohio, officially weighed 139.8 pounds. The 27-year-old Martin (24-1, 14 KOs), of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was slightly lighter (139.6 pounds).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.