Donaire weighs in at 116.4 pounds, Narvaez at 117
NEW YORK — WBO and WBC bantamweight titleholder Nonito Donaire was a surprisingly light 116.4 pounds compared to the 117 for Saturday night's opponent, WBO junior bantamweight Omar Narvaez, during Friday's pre-fight weigh-in before an intrigued crowd in the jam-packed Peyton Room of the Affinia Hotel.
The 28-year-old Donaire (26-1, 18 KOs) will purse his 26th straight victory against Narvaez (35-0-2, 19 KOs), who is fighting at a career-high in his bantamweight debut.
Donaire-Narvaez is an HBO-televised bout that is taking place at WaMu Theater inside Madison Square Garden, marking the debut at the venue for both fighters.
Donaire weighed in at the 118-pound limit for both his bantamweight debut and his second bout in the division, respectively, in a sensational fourth-round knockout of Wladimir Sidorenko (22-2-2, seven KOs) in December of last year, and a follow-up second-round stoppage of three-division titlewinner Fernando Montiel (46-3-2, 36 KOs) in February.
Donaire left Friday's weigh-in to "go and eat and get everything back" said trainer Robert Garcia, and was not immediately available to be interviewed.
"After I rest for six months, I'm blowing up to about 145, and I'm not even fat or anything," said Donaire during a Sept. 1 interview with RingTV.com. "So I really am losing a lot of weight to get back down to 118."
Reached after weigh-in, Donaire's wife, Rachel Donaire, said that she and her husband believed that the official scale was weighing Donaire light.
"We think that the scale was a little off, because we had a calibrated test scale that we used all week, and on that, he was heavier," said Rachel Donaire. "Nonito believes that he was heavier than the 116 that their scale said. He believes that he was heavier."
Garcia said Donaire weighed 124 pounds prior to a Thursday evening workout, and was "about a pound and a half over about an hour before the weigh-in."
"You know what? The thing about losing the one or two pounds that you've got left an hour before the weigh-in, he went in there and tried to loosen up a little. He wanted to lose some water weight, and more than enough came out," said Garcia.
"But it's not because he's over-trained or anything. We weighed him before we came here and he was a pound and a half over. And he started shadowboxing and sweating, and he sweated a little more than he was supposed to."
Garcia said that he is not worried, however, about any indications surfacing as a result of the extreme weight-loss, even as Nonaire walks around weighing more than 140 pounds.
"Not at all. This was the first time he had to exercise all day," said Garcia. "You know, he was resting all day. It was just a 15-minute shadowboxing thing. No big deal."