Higa, Fuentes Make Weight

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Unbeaten WBC flyweight champion Daigo Higa (14-0, 14 KOs) tipped the beam at the 112-pound class limit, while his Mexican challenger Moises Fuentes (25-4-1, 14 KOs) scaled in at 111.75 pound on Saturday in Okinawa, Japan. Higa, 22, is very much willing to extend his KO streak to fifteen, saying, “If I cannot knock him out despite my victory, I’ll be an ordinary champ. If victorious by knockout, I have something as the champion. Should I lose, I’ll be only a boxer with no crown.”

After the weigh-in was over, the promoter and Higa’s manager, Yoko Gushiken (who previously defended his WBA 108-pound belt on thirteen occasions to his credit) kindly gifted tacos, Mexican food, to Fuentes, 30, who smilingly received it with pleasure. Is that a diplomatic language?

The WBC officials are as follows:

Referee Len Koivisto (Canada); judges Glen Crocker (US), Jun-Bae Lim (Korea), Noppharat Sricharoen (Thailand).

It will be telecast live from 8 PM through Fuji Television here in Japan.