WBO cruiserweight title challenger Pedro Rodriguez lost his chances for the belt against holder Oleksandr Usyk on Dec. 11 after failing to lose 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) in the two hours after the official pre-fight weigh in in Kyiv.
The
Cuban-born boxer weighed in at 94 kilograms, 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) above the
91-kilogram limit on Dec. 11 a day before his title bout with Oleksandr Usyk
for the WBO Inter-Continental cruiserweight belt at Kyiv’s Sport Palace arena.
The bout
will still take place and even if the Cuban-born boxer defeats Usyk on Dec. 12,
he’ll be deprived of the title, according to WBO rules.
Current WBO
cruiserweight title holder Oleksandr Usyk came in just 300 grams below the
limit.
Usyk’s
manager and K2 Promotions CEO Alexander Krassyuk told the Kyiv Post via text
messages that he will consider seeking a fine on the morning of Dec. 12. He
said that Rodriguez had lost only 500 grams in the two hours allotted him after
the weight in at 2 p.m.
Rodriguez,
who trains in Miami, Florida, will fight for the first time on the European
continent. His only loss came in the heavyweight division three years ago
against Magomed Abdusalamov, and he knocked down 19 of his 22 opponents for
victories. He entered professional boxing relatively late in his career, at the
age of 23 in February 2010.
Usyk, a native of Simferopol in Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He has fought over 300 fights, but only eight professional bouts, sending all of his opponents to the canvas.
Dec. 12 was supposed to be his fourth title defense. Krassyuk declined to say the size of the fight purse when asked by the Kyiv Post at a pre-fight conference in Kyiv on Dec. 8.
Inter TV channel will start broadcasting at 7 p.m. on Dec. 12, which will include six undercard fights before Usyk and Rodriguez fight, according to the fight card. They are preliminarily scheduled to walk in the ring at 10:30 p.m.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can
be reached at [email protected].
