Wilder vs Ortiz: Deontay Wilder weighs in at lowest since 2009

Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz are ready to go for tomorrow night’s WBC heavyweight title fight on Showtime, live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, but there were some surprises on the scale today.

Notably, Wilder (39-0, 38 KO) weighed in at just 214¾ pounds, his lowest number on the scales since his third professional fight in 2009.

He’s actually appeared headed in this direction for a while now, though. After bulking up earlier in his pro career, he’s been headed back down after a career-high weight of 229 for his 2015 defense against Eric Molina. He weighed 228¾ for his next two bouts, then 226¼, 222, and 220¾ last time out against Bermane Stiverne.

The last time Wilder came in under 220 was his first fight with Stiverne in 2015, when he tipped the scales at 219.

He’ll be giving up weight to the bulkier Ortiz (28-0, 24 KO), who came in at 241¼, but that’s nothing new for Wilder, either.

The co-feature rematch between super middleweights Andre Dirrell (26-2, 16 KO) and Jose Uzcategui (26-2, 22 KO) is also set. Dirrell weighed in at 167¾, with Uzcategui at 166, both below the 168-pound limit.