Despite several changes leading to this point, the show is finally ready to go on this weekend.
Eimantnas Stanionis and Luis Collazo both made weight for their scheduled 10-round bout just above the welterweight limit, which headlines a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Fox tripleheader Saturday evening, live from The Armory in Minneapolis. The bout marks the second straight Fox show to go head-to-head with the Tokyo Olympics, marking the only televised boxing action from stateside over the two-week period.
Stanionis (13-0, 9KOs)—a 2016 Olympic welterweight for Lithuania who is now based in Oxnard, California—stepped on the scale at 148.6 pounds. Collazo (39-8, 20KOs)—a former welterweight titlist from Brooklyn—weighed 148.8 pounds for his first fight in nearly two years and contemplated retirement prior to accepting this fight. The contracted limit was 149 pounds.
In the evening’s chief support, Venezuela’s Gabriel Maestre (3-0, 3KOs) puts his WBA interim welterweight title at stake as he faces Hyattsville, Maryland’s Mykal Fox (22-2, 5KOs).
Both boxers were well inside the welterweight limit for the scheduled 12-round bout. Maestre checked in at a trim and fit 146 pounds, while the 6’4” Fox weighed 146.4 pounds.
Maestre was due to represent Venezuela in his third Olympic competition, as he would have faced USA’s Delante ‘Tiger’ Johnson in the opening round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at welterweight. The unbeaten welterweight—who competed in 2012 London and 2016 Rio—instead chose to proceed with his pro career, having committed to this fight and thus withdrawing from Olympic competition.
The original opponent for Saturday was Canada’s Cody Crowley, who tested positive for COVID and thus was forced to withdraw. Fox accepted the fight on less than two weeks’ notice
The opening bout of the telecast was the only one with a scare at the scale. Lucas Santamaria (11-2-1, 7KOs) and Devon Alexander both made weight for their scheduled 10-round junior middleweight fight. However, it required Alexander stepping on the scale three times in less than five minutes due to a dispute with a member of Santamaria’s team who insisted that the former two-division titlist didn’t properly make weight.
Alexander (27-6-1, 14KOs) was initially announced as having weighed right at the contracted limit of 154 pounds. Following the staredown, Santamaria’s chief second asked the onsite representative of the Minnesota Office of Combative Sports to have Alexander get back on the scale. His hunch was accurate, as Alexander was slightly over the limit, having to then strip down in order to officially make weight.
All three bouts air live on Fox beginning 8:00pm ET
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox