Vasiliy Lomachenko and Richard Commey couldn’t contain their smiles for long Friday afternoon once they made weight.
The former lightweight champions clearly respect one another, thus they simply laughed and shook hands, instead of displaying any animosity toward one another the day before their 12-round main event at Madison Square Garden in New York. Moments earlier, Ukraine’s Lomachenko and Ghana’s Commey came in below the lightweight limit of 135 pounds.
Lomachenko, 33, stepped on the New York State Athletic Commission’s scale at 134.4 pounds. Commey, 34, officially weighed 134.2 pounds.
Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs) and Commey (30-3, 27 KOs) each will box for the second time since suffering their respective losses to former lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez.
The left-handed Lomachenko stopped Japan’s Masayoshi Nakatani (19-2, 13 KOs) in the ninth round June 26 in Las Vegas, which marked his first bout after Lopez upset him by unanimous decision to win the WBA “super,” WBC “franchise” and WBO belts in October 2020.
Commey knocked out the Dominican Republic’s Jackson Marinez (19-2, 7 KOs) in the sixth round of their February 13 fight in Las Vegas. That impressive victory represented Commey’s return from a second-round, technical-knockout loss to Lopez (16-1, 12 KOs) in December 2019 at Madison Square Garden.
Lomachenko-Commey will headline ESPN’s four-fight telecast Saturday night, which will immediately follow the network’s Heisman Trophy show. Caesars Sportsbook lists Lomachenko as an 8-1 favorite.
The official weights for the entire Lomachenko-Commey undercard are listed below.
ESPN; 9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT
Jared Anderson (10-0, 10 KOs), Toledo, Ohio, 240 pounds vs. Oleksandr Teslenko (17-1, 13 KOs), Montreal, 213.8 pounds, 8 rounds, heavyweights.
Keyshawn Davis (3-0, 2 KOs), Norfolk, Virginia, 137.8 pounds vs. Jose Zaragoza (8-3-1, 2 KOs), Sedalia, Missouri, 136.2 pounds, 6 rounds, junior welterweights.
Nico Ali Walsh (2-0, 2 KOs), Las Vegas, 159.2 pounds vs. Reyes Sanchez (6-0, 2 KOs), Topeka, Kansas, 161.8 pounds, 4 rounds, middleweights.
ESPN+; 5:30 p.m. ET; 2:30 p.m. PT
Xander Zayas (11-0, 8 KOs), San Juan, Puerto Rico, 152.6 pounds vs. Alessio Mastronunzio (9-1, 3 KOs), Ardea, Italy, 152.2 pounds, 6 rounds, junior middleweights.
Pablo Valdez (5-0, 4 KOs), New York, New York, 146 pounds vs. Julio Cesar Sanchez (11-3, 6 KOs), Queens, New York, 149.6 pounds, 6 rounds, junior middleweights.
James Wilkins (9-2, 6 KOs), Dallas, 127.2 pounds vs. Juan Tapia (10-3, 3 KOs), Brownsville, Texas, 129.4 pounds, 6 rounds, junior lightweights.
Joseph Ward (5-1, 2 KOs), Moate, Ireland, 175.2 pounds vs. Britton Norwood (10-3-1, 7 KOs, 1 NC), Jackson, Mississippi, 176.4 pounds, 6 rounds, light heavyweights.
Kelvin Davis (2-0, 1 KO), Norfolk, Virginia, 144 pounds vs. Ryan Schwartzberg (1-3-1, 1 KOs), Dania, Florida, 144.8 pounds, 4 rounds, welterweights.
John Bauza (15-0, 6 KOs), North Bergen, New Jersey, 140.2 pounds vs. Michael Williams Jr. (19-0, 12 KOs), Fort Riley, Kansas, 138.6 pounds, 8 rounds, junior welterweights.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.