The last time Alexis Angulo weighed in for a televised main event, it was his opponent, David Benavidez, who came in nearly three pounds overweight for their 12-round, 168-pound title fight.
Angulo was the fighter who arrived at the scale overweight Friday, though. The Colombian contender stepped on the New York State Athletic Commission’s scale at 169.6 pounds for his 10-round fight against Edgar Berlanga on Saturday night, 1.6 pounds above his contracted limit of 168.
The NYSAC gave Angulo its customary two hours to come back to its scale on weight. Their fight is expected to move forward if Angulo doesn’t get all the way down to 168 pounds, but he’ll have to pay a financial penalty to Berlanga and the NYSAC.
Brooklyn’s Berlanga officially weighed in at 167.6 pounds.
Berlanga (19-0, 16 KOs) is listed as almost a 3-1 favorite by most sportsbooks, but he has gone the distance in each of his past three fights after starting his career with 16 first-round knockout wins. Colombia’s Angulo (27-2, 23 KOs) is 38 years old, but only Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) has stopped him inside the distance.
Berlanga, 25, and Angulo will headline a doubleheader ESPN will air from Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York. Their main event will take place the night prior to the 65th annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan, which figures to help draw a capacity crowd full of supportive Puerto Rican fans for Berlanga and other Puerto Ricans scheduled to compete on the undercard.
Two boxers with the same surname made weight for their eight-round co-feature before Berlanga and Angulo got on the scale.
Unbeaten junior lightweight prospect Henry Lebron (15-0, 10 KOs), of Augadilla, Puerto Rico, came in at 129.8 pounds for his eight-round fight against Luis Lebron (18-3-1, 11 KOs), a San Juan native who officially weighed exactly 130 pounds. ESPN’s doubleheader will begin at 11 p.m. ET with its live coverage of the Lebron-Lebron bout.
Official weights for the non-televised bouts on the Berlanga-Angulo undercard, each of which will be streamed live, are listed below.
ESPN+
7:10 p.m. ET; 4:10 p.m. PT
Carlos Caraballo (15-1, 14 KOs), Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, 120.4 pounds vs. Victor Santillan (11-0, 4 KOs), Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, 119.6 pounds, 8 rounds, junior featherweights.
Josue Vargas (20-2, 9 KOs), Bronx, New York, 142.6 pounds vs. Dakota Linger (12-5-3, 8 KOs), Buckhannon, West Virginia, 142.6 pounds, 8 rounds, welterweights.
Armani Almestica (5-0, 5 KOs), Orlando, Florida, 134.2 pounds vs. Eliseo Villalobos (2-2, 1 KO), Simi Valley, California, 134.4 pounds, 6 rounds, lightweights.
Orlando Gonzalez (17-1, 10 KOs), Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, 128 pounds vs. Pablo Cruz (22-4-1, 6 KOs), Houston, 127.8 pounds, 8 rounds, junior lightweights.
Omar Rosario (6-0, 2 KOs), Caguas, Puerto Rico, 140.6 pounds vs. Julio Rosa (4-0, 1 KO), Bayamon, Puerto Rico, 139.6 pounds, 6 rounds, junior welterweights.
Frevian Gonzalez (4-1, 1 KO), Cidra, Puerto Rico, 134.6 pounds vs. Rufugio Montellano (2-0, 1 KO), Dallas, 134.8 pounds, 4 rounds, lightweights.
Christina Cruz (2-0, 0 KOs), New York, 111.8 pounds vs. Maryguenn Vellinga (3-2-2, 2 KOs), Park City, Utah, 110.6 pounds, 4 rounds, flyweights.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.