Cotto to Trout: 'Come with the fight of your life'

NEW YORK -- WBA junior middleweight titleholder Austin Trout had to weigh in nude in order to make the division limit of 154 pounds, while challenger Miguel Cotto came in at 153.6 on Friday at the beyond-capacity Fitzgerald Ballroom of the Affinia Hotel, where more than 500 boisterous partisan Cotto fans gathered.

Trout (25-0, 14 knockouts) will face Cotto (37-3, 30 KOs) on Saturday on Showtime at 9 p.m. PT/ET at New York's Madison Square Garden, where Cotto is 7-0, with four knockouts.  

"I knew I was going to make weight, I'm not drained, I'm good," said Trout, during an interview with Showtime's Steve Farhood. "Tomorrow night, I'm going to make his my fans."

Standing nearly 5-foot-10 to Cotto's 5-7, Trout said he expected to "probably be at 170 coming into that ring" on Saturday night, adding, "I'll just be a lot bigger than him," and, that he would "just jump on that scale, and then, jump in Cotto's ass on Saturday."

"Listen, we wanted to cut it close," said Bob Spagnola, Trout's manager. "You never want to be an eighth of an ounce under what you have to be, so that's what we tried to do."

Standing in an atmosphere he believes is a preview of how Trout, of Las Cruces, N.M., will be greeted at The Garden, the Puerto Rican Cotto expressed confidence.

"I'm grateful for the fans," said Cotto to Farhood. "I only have one thing to say to him. 'Come with the fight of your life, because you're facing the fighter of your life."

On the undercard, Puerto Rican junior lightweight prospect Jayson Velez (19-0, 14 KOs) weighed 125.8 to 125.2 for rival Salvador "Sal II" Sanchez II (30-4-3, 18 KO's), of Tianguistenco, Mexico, and middleweight contender Danny Jacobs (23-1, 20 KOs), of Brooklyn, was at 161.2 compared to 163.3 for Chris "The Irish Ghost" Fitzpatrick (15-2, 6 KO's), of Cleveland.

Jacobs and Fitzpatrick had agreed to a contracted weight of 162, give or take a pound, and Fitzpatrick was granted an hour to make the limit. Fitzpatrick returned later and "made weight," according to Jacobs' advisor, Sam Watson, who added, "the fight is on."

Also, hard-punching junior middleweight Jorge Melendez (24-2, 23 KOs), of Manati, Puerto Rico, will be after his fourth straight knockout against North Carolina's James Winchester (15-6, 5 KOs), a bout for which each weighed 155.

Junior lightweight Jeffrey Fontanez (8-0, 7 KOs), of Caguas, Puerto Rico, and Pedro Arcos (12-2-1, 9 KOs), of Tijuana, Mexico, came in at 134.6 and,134.5, respectively.

Lightweight Michael Perez (17-1-1, 10 KOs), of Newark, N.J., and opponent Fernando Carcamo (10-4, 7 KOs), of Obregon, Mexico, were at 135.4 and 135.5, while featherweight Jorge Diaz (16-1, 10 KOs), of New Brunswick, N.J., and scheduled rival Victor Sanchez (3-4-1), of Houston, were 122.4 and 126.4.

Junior middleweight Eddie Gomez (11-0, 8 KO's), of The Bronx, will be after his third straight knockout in a clash of unbeatens against Luis Hernandez (9-0, 5 KOs), of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, and weighed 150 to Hernandez's 152.

Newark middleweight John Thompson (9-0, 3 KO's) came in att 156.4 to 158 for Eli Augustama (6-5, 3 KO's), of Port Au Prince, Haiti.

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com