Kenneth Sims, Oscar Duarte Make Weight for WBA Junior Welterweight Title Eliminator

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Nate Marrero

RingMagazine.com |6 days ago

Kenneth Sims, Oscar Duarte Make Weight for WBA Junior Welterweight Title Eliminator

The stage is officially set for a pivotal junior welterweight clash on Saturday at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Credit Union 1 Arena on DAZN (8 p.m. ET; 1 a.m. BST).

Kenneth Sims Jr. and Oscar Duarte made weight Friday ahead of their 12-round fight for a WBA regional belt. Both weighed in right under the 140-pound junior welterweight limit at 139.8.

After stepping on the scales, Sims and Duarte shared an intense staredown and had to be separated.

“He’ll see tomorrow,” Sims said after the weigh-in. “He said I’ve been ducking him. He was nice yesterday, [forget] all of that. It’s that time. We own that. It’s belt to ass tomorrow. I’m extremely confident. I’m better than him. He can’t do nothing with me. He’s going to get embarrassed tomorrow.”

Duarte (29-2, 23 KOs), of Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico, enters the pivotal clash on a three-fight win streak. In his last outing, he knocked Miguel Madueno out in the seventh round on Feb. 15 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Sims (22-2-1, 8 KOs), a Chicago native, is on a nine-fight win streak and last fought on the same card, defeating Kendo Castaneda by unanimous decision.

“I feel fear,” Duarte said of what he saw during the staredown with Sims. “I see fear and I’m ready to get going."

Sims and Duarte were first scheduled last year to fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but a knee injury forced the former to withdraw from the bout. Sims is ranked No. 4 by the WBA, while Duarte is No. 5.

Former champions Regis Prograis and Joseph “JoJo” Diaz also made weight for their crucial crossroads bout in the co-feature. Prograis (29-3, 24 KOs) weighed in at 142, while Diaz (34-7-1, 15 KOs) was 142.2 for their 10-round junior welterweight fight.

The weights for the rest of the card: