Photos: Michael Coffie weighs 271.3 pounds, Jonathan Rice weighs 268.6 pounds
Undefeated heavyweight Michael Coffie weighed in at 271.3 pounds on Friday, ahead of his ten-round bout on Saturday against Jonathan Rice, who was slightly lighter at 268.6 pounds.
The bout will headline a PBC on Fox card from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
Coffie (12-0, 9 knockouts) of Brooklyn, N.Y. is coming off a third round knockout win over Darmani Rock in January. Rice, a Los Angeles resident, is a year younger than Coffie at 34. He has lost two straight bouts, but took Efe Ajagba the ten-round distance in his last bout, in September of 2020, and was stopped in ten rounds by Demsey McKean in Australia in March of 2020.
The co-featured bout was supposed to feature local favorite Vito Mielnicki Jr. against James Martin in an immediate rematch of Mielnicki’s first defeat this past April. Mielnicki (8-1, 5 knockouts) made the 147-pound limit on the mark for the eight-round bout, but Martin (7-2) missed the weight badly, checking in at 151.5 pounds, causing the opposition to be switched around.
Mielnicki will instead face Noah Kidd (6-3-2, 5 KOs), who weighed 144.6 pounds, while Martin will face Joey Spencer (12-0, 9 KOs), who weighed in at 156.5 pounds.
Also returning to action is Andre Dirrell (27-3, 17 knockouts), who weighed in at 175.5 pounds for his 10-round bout with Christopher Brooker (16-7, 6 KOs), who weighed in at 175 pounds. The bout will headline a second, earlier broadcast on Fox Sports 1. Dirrell, a 2004 U.S. Olympian and multiple time world title challenger, last fought in December of 2019, knocking out Juan Ubaldo Cabrera in five rounds.
In other bouts, Norman Neely (8-0, 7 KOs) of Paterson, N.J. weighed in at 226.2 pounds for his 6-round bout with Juan Torres (6-3-1, 3 KOs) of Cypress, Texas, who weighed 247.9 pounds. Karl Dargan (19-1, 9 KOs) of Philadelphia weighed 137.5 pounds for his 8-round bout against Ivan Delgado (13-3-2, 6 KOs) of Los Angeles, who weighed 139.5 pounds. Michael Anderson (20-3-1, 14 KOs) of Newark, N.J. weighed 147.9 pounds for his 6-round bout against DeMarcus Rodgers (14-3-1, 5 KOs) of Chattanooga, Tenn., who weighed 146.5 pounds.
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