By REYNALD MAGALLON
Filipino boxer John Riel Casimero went over the weight limit in his non-title super bantamweight bout against American Saul Sanchez at the Yokohama Budokan in Japan set on Sunday, Oct. 13 (Manila time).
In the official weigh in on Saturday, Oct. 12, Casimero tipped the scales at 124.12lbs or 56.33 kilograms – a kilo over the 122 lbs or 55.3kg weight limit while Sanchez easily made the weight at 121.7 lbs.
Casimero was given two hours to shed some weight but still failed to make the cut on the second try after weighing 55.9kg or 123.23 lbs.
The fight is reportedly pushing through as there was no title belt at stake although the situation certainly puts Casimero on bad light anew especially in his bid of attracting a possible fight against unified super bantamweight king Naoya Inoue.
Curiously, it was not the first time Casimero was embroiled in a weight mismanagement issue, having violated weight cut and medical guidelines after being over the limit in his mandatory title defense against English challenger Paul Butler back in 2022.
The World Boxing Organization ended up stripping the belt from Casimero after failing to get into the ring and defend his title twice.
The fight against Sanchez, meanwhile, is the first fight for Casimero in almost a year or since he last stepped on the ring when he fought against Yukinori Oguni and ended in a draw,
Sporting a 33-4-1 record, Casimero is hoping to make a noise for himself in the division against Sanchez, who despite being the lesser experienced fighter, still looked formidable with his 21-2 slate.
