Mayweather Weighs In at 146 Pounds, Marquez 142; Does it Matter?  

LAS VEGAS -- There is no title at stake Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, but that didn't mean eyes weren't firmly glued to the scale Friday afternoon during the weigh-in for Floyd Mayweather Jr. in comeback fight against Juan Manuel Marquez.

When has a non-title weigh-in been this interesting? How about when neither fighter nor camp would cop to an actual limit beforehand, which has been the case in the weeks leading up to Saturday's HBO pay-per-view event.

The catchweight for this 12-round bout was allegedly set at 144 pounds -- a happy welterweight medium for the 5-foot-8 inch Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) and what amounts to a two-division jump in weight for the smaller, more wiry 5-foot 5 Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs).

After 45 minutes of buildup that sent a largely Latino and pro-Marquez crowd of about 15,000 chanting and screaming for the Mexico hero, Marquez weighed in at 142 pounds. That's actually heavier than many fight experts expected from a 36-year-old former WBA, IBF and WBO featherweight and super featherweight (126-130 pound) champion.

Mayweather weighed 146 pounds, and the folks at Mayweather Productions indeed had a contractual agreement with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions to compensate Marquez if the self-proclaimed Comeback King came in over the agreed weight limit.

Unlike a welterweight title fight, in which the ceiling is 147 pounds, there's no sanctioning body that will step in here and fine Mayweather for being two pounds over the assumed 144-pound limit. This was written directly into the fight contract.

"During the promotion, the fight was contracted at welterweight and promoted at 147 (pounds), but the agreed-upon weight was 144 pounds and there were agreed-upon penalties if either fighter came in heavy," said Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who conceded there will be a "substantial" weight penalty for those two pounds. Schaefer wouldn't specify what the penalty would be.

"Sometimes size matters and sometimes it doesn't. But the matter is all of that is contractually covered," Schaefer said. "It's a substantial amount of money and (Mayweather's) advisors and his team were quite upset that he has to come up with that substantial amount."

Source: boxing.fanhouse.com