It happened before, for a different reason, and now it’s happened again. At yesterday’s final weigh-in prior to tonight’s championship bout televised live on Showtime from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, David Benavidez, the now former WBC super middleweight champion, came in three pounds over the 168-pound limit. It was the second time he has lost his title. Neither time was it in the ring.

 

Benavidez is young, only 23. He is undefeated at 22-0 with 19 KOs. He’s a big super middleweight with heavy hands who has yet to reach maturation. He’s still growing boy, and he may have outgrown the 168-pound division.

 

“I’m very disappointed,” he said. “This is obviously my first time missing weight. Just very disappointed to lose the title on the scale, but I’m still going to win the fight tomorrow. I put the blame on myself. It’s just the last three pounds wouldn’t come off.”

 

Those last three pounds are always the hardest to shed. Someone on his team failed to ask the right person the right question at the right time and the fighter paid the price.

 

Benavidez explained why he was overweight.

 

“Maybe not having the proper things I needed like no sauna,” he said. I was only able to go to the gym an hour a day since I got here. It’s just a couple of different things, but I still have a job to do tomorrow. Maybe later the opportunity will present itself, but I still have a fight to win.”

 

Blaming a sauna, or a lack thereof, is the oldest trick in the book. In this sport, which takes no prisoners, never take nothing for granted.

 

“I didn’t think this all the way through. Coming in I thought I would have access to more, but I didn’t. Maybe this is a message to all the other fighters who have a little bit of trouble with their weight. It’s going to be hard to make the weight if you already have trouble.

 

“If you need a couple extra things like the gym or the sauna, you better come into the bubble already on weight.”