No weighty issues for Filipino champ

World champion Melvin Jerusalem is right on track as far as weight is concerned around two weeks before he defends the World Boxing Council (WBC) minimumweight crown against Yudai Shigeoka in a rematch on 30 March.

Jerusalem posted on his social media account on Friday that he met the WBC’s pre-fight mandatory check in the middle of his buildup in Cebu City.

The weight limit in fight night is 105 pounds and Jerusalem scaled in at 110 pounds.

The Mexico City-based WBC has a strict ruling on pre-weigh-in.

“For the 30-day pre-weigh-in, boxers do not require more than 10 percent of their division limit, for the 14-day boxer they do not require more than 5 percent and for the seven-day limit, 3 percent.

With the intention of avoiding over hydration, since last year the WBC applied a weighing system in the dressing room of the arena where the combat is carried out, in which the fighters do not have to weigh on the scale more than 10 percent of what they marked during the official weigh-in,” the WBC said in its official page.

The Shigeoka showdown will be Jerusalem’s second defense of the title that he had won on a split decision over the same Japanese last year in Nagoya.

In his first defense, the Filipino repulsed mandatory challenger Luis Castillo of Mexico in September last year.

Team Jerusalem is expected to fly to Japan on 23 March with lead trainer Michael Domingo in tow.

The fight takes place at the Aichi Sky Expo in the city of Tokomane, which can be reached from Nagoya by land in less than an hour.