By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
Floyd Mayweather Jr. made the contracted weight of 147 pounds for his HBO Pay-Per-View fight on Saturday with Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
But when Mayweather weighed 146 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in, he was forced to pay a six-figure penalty to Marquez for coming in at more than 144 pounds, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said.
Schaefer said the contract the fighters signed in May was for the bout to be at a limit of 147 pounds. But in that contract, each man agreed to a substantial penalty clause for every pound, or fraction thereof, more than 144.
Mayweather has fought at welterweight since 2005, but Marquez never has and only has fought three times at more than 130. He weighed
134 in a Dec. 9, 1996, bout against Rodrigo Valenzuela. He was 135 when he stopped Joel Casamayor on Sept. 13, 2008, and was 134 when he stopped Juan Diaz on Feb. 28.
On Friday, Marquez weighed 142.
There never was any question whether Marquez could make the weight. It has been more than four years since Mayweather weighed less than 146.
“There were no surprises,” Schaefer said. “The contract the fighters signed for the fight so many months ago called it a welterweight fight. But there was a stipulation that there would be a penalty for weighing over 144.
“Floyd’s team informed us today that he would not be able to make 144, and because of that, there was a substantial penalty. If he would have been 147, it would have been even bigger.”
Thus, Mayweather was in the odd position Friday of making the contracted weight but still paying a penalty.
If either man had weighed in excess of 147, he would have been required to sweat off the excess weight to reach 147 exactly. That is not normally the case unless a fight is for a championship, which Saturday’s fight is not.
Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, said there was no issue with the weight from a commission standpoint. Kizer said he went to Marquez’s locker room prior to the weigh-in and asked him if he was aware that Mayweather would weigh more than 144.
Kizer said Marquez told him he had no problem with it.
Mayweather also arrived at the MGM Grand about an hour later than the reporting time given to him by the commission.
Kevin Iole covers boxing and mixed martial arts for Yahoo! Sports.