ATLANTA – This was nothing like Gervonta Davis’ previous trip to the scale the day before a main event at State Farm Arena.
Davis made the 140-pound limit on his first attempt Friday afternoon for his 12-round title fight against Mario Barrios. The significantly taller Barrios also made weight on his initial try for their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event Saturday night.
Baltimore’s Davis stepped on the Georgia Athletic & Entertainment Commission’s scale at 139¾ pounds for his debut at the super lightweight limit. San Antonio’s Barrios officially weighed 139½ pounds at The Tabernacle, a concert venue in downtown Atlanta.
The 26-year-old Davis, a 5-1 favorite, will attempt to become a world champion in a third weight class when he battles Barrios, who’s also 26. Scotland’s Josh Taylor, not Barrios, is the WBA’s true super lightweight champion, though.
Nevertheless, Davis has jumped up two weight classes from his last fight – from 130 pounds to 140 – to box Barrios, who holds the WBA world super lightweight title.
Their weigh-in was uneventful compared to Davis’ weigh-in for his lightweight title fight against Yuriorkis Gamboa in December 2019. Davis weighed a career 136¼ pounds the first time he attempted to weigh in for their 135-pound championship match.
Davis shoved Gamboa when he arrived on the stage, which ignited a brawl before they weighed in.
The two-division champion came back more than two hours later to Compound, an Atlanta nightclub, and officially weighed 134¾ pounds. Davis paid undisclosed fines to the Georgia commission and Gamboa, who weighed 134½ pounds on his first trip to the scale.
Davis dropped Gamboa (30-4, 18 KOs) three times the next night, stopped the Cuban veteran in the 12th round and won the then-vacant WBA world lightweight title.
In his subsequent bout, Davis became a two-time 130-pound champion by knocking out Leo Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19 KOs) in the sixth round of their WBA championship match October 31 at Alamodome in San Antonio.
The official weights for the televised portion of the Davis-Barrios undercard fights are listed below.
Showtime Pay-Per-View; 9 p.m. EDT; 6 p.m. PDT ($74.99)
Erickson Lubin (23-1, 16 KOs), Orlando, Florida, 153½ pounds vs. Jeison Rosario (20-2-1, 14 KOs), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 154 pounds, 12 rounds, WBC super welterweight elimination match.
Carlos Adames (19-1, 15 KOs), Comendador, Dominican Republic, 157 pounds vs. Alexis Salazar (23-3, 9 KOs), Guadalajara, Mexico, 157 pounds, 10 rounds, middleweights.
Batyr Akhmedov (8-1, 7 KOs), Oktyabr, Uzbekistan, 139½ pounds vs. Argenis Mendez (25-6-3, 12 KOs, 1 NC), Yonkers, New York, 139½ pounds, 12 rounds, WBA super lightweight elimination match.
Non-televised undercard
Leduan Barthelemy (16-1-1, 8 KOs), Guantanamo, Cuba, 129½ pounds vs. Viktor Slavinsky (12-0-1, 6 KOs), Los Angeles, 130 pounds, 10 rounds, junior lightweights.
Andres Gutierrez (38-2-1, 25 KOs), Guadalajara, Mexico, 144 pounds vs. Angel Hernandez (17-16-2, 11 KOs), McAllen, Texas, 145½ pounds, 8 rounds, welterweights.
Dalton Bodie (1-0, 1 KO), Trenton, South Carolina, 164¼ pounds vs. Trever Bradshaw (1-0), Salt Lake City, Utah, 166¼ pounds, 4 rounds, super middleweights.
Stacey Selby (2-0, 2 KOs), Upper Marlboro, Maryland, 138½ pounds vs. William Smith (3-6-1, 3 KOs), Anchorage, Alaska, 141½ pounds, 4 rounds, junior welterweights.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.