Message In The Bottle: Time to take the ceremonial out of the weigh-in

By Norm Frauenheim –

Ryan Garcia, the actor, chugged like it was last call at a crowded bar before stepping onto a scale at a weigh-in before his dramatic upset of Devin Haney.

It’s not clear what was in the brown bottle. Could have been beer. Could have been air. Garcia later said it was apple juice

By now, of course, we know that Garcia says a lot of things. To wit: He also said he drank, fully fermented and aged, throughout training camp. Only Haney suffered the hangover.

It doesn’t matter. The bottle was a prop. So was the scale.

The weigh-in was a show.

A sham, too.

It was one of those so-called “ceremonial” weigh-ins. It’s not clear how they became ceremonial.

Nothing about a weigh-in resembles a graduation, or a wedding, or an anniversary. Those are holidays, celebrations. But there’s nothing to celebrate in scripted weigh-ins, staged hours after the real thing happens behind closed doors on the morning the day before opening bell the following night.

Increasingly, however, the staged weigh-in is becoming part of the process before major fights.

Early on, it looked as if it was a way for commissions to do their work away from crowds and chaos interfering with regulatory procedure.

The staged version later in the afternoon, open to the public, retained the theatrics, including the face-to-face stare down for the cameras. That sells tickets and pay-per-view. It keeps the promoters, networks and book keepers happy.

More and more, however, the process has been manipulated in ways that rob fans of transparency.

When the morning weigh-ins were first introduced a couple of years ago, media were notified and often able to witness them.

But, now, they’re closed and seldom announced, leaving reporters to get the weights through sources who were there.

Meanwhile, many fans are just discovering that there’s nothing real about what they’re seeing in the afternoon.

There was some surprise among many that the live-streamed weigh-in for Garcia-Haney was fake, perhaps as phony as whatever was in that bottle Garcia brought to the stage.

It was announced that Garcia was 3.2 pounds heavier than the 140 mandatory. In fact, we only know that he was 3.2 too heavy five-to-six hours earlier.

No telling how much heavier he was at the staged weigh-in. Then, he was announced to be at 143.2, give or take a bottle. But that was just part of the show.

It’s fair to say he already had begun to put on pounds. He blew off making weight intentionally. That was part of the game plan.

The World Boxing Council belt didn’t matter. Only the victory did, which might have been worth $50 million for him.

That’s the number Garcia posted on social media this week. He also posted $35 million for Haney. He didn’t provide any proof, 180 or otherwise.

Haney, too, blew up in weight. He always has. But the weight – 10, 15 maybe 20 additional pounds — has always been speculation.

Weight at opening bell for Garcia and Haney for last Saturday’s fight in New York are closely-held secrets and will continue to be.

On any scale, however, it’s dangerous business. A radical overnight loss and gain in weight isn’t exactly a health plan.

Yet, it’s a tactic, a way to augment power, and a rehydrated Garcia had plenty of that in his three-knockdown scorecard victory.

Rehydration is more than a contract clause. Increasingly, It’s a weapon for any fighter in divisions other than heavyweight. A rehydrated fighter is a better fighter. That’s a theory, subject to time and physical differences.  But by how much? Plug in your guesstimate here.

Yet, it clearly worked for Garcia, and it has increasingly become an ominous practice, one that erodes the credibility of victories and creates the potential for dangerous mismatches.

The ceremonial weigh-in, five to six hours after the real one, has only provided more time to rehydrate. It’s an enabler.

From this corner, there’s only one real solution: Go back to weigh-ins on the day of the fight.

That one, however, is not realistic, at least not now. There have been too many years of weigh-ins with all of the trash talk, threats and face-to-face drama. They are a well-rehearsed ritual, as fundamental to the scarred business as a cheap shot.

Now, however, fighters — always in search of an edge — have a few more hours to gain one. Or several.

But there is a way to limit that edge. Eliminate the ceremonial, which Ryan Garcia celebrated with a powerful shot of mockery.