PHOENIX, ARIZONA | Let's settle the point right away. The instrument on which the boxers stand is called a bathroom scale. But in a title, it lacks punch. The balance is the instrument with two pans with which we measure the weight of certain objects.

It also gave the astrological sign.

But when it's 38 degrees at noon and the sun beats down like a convection oven, the balance, we would tend to give a damn.

It would be a mistake. And Michel Hamelin, the former boss of boxing in Quebec, had his eyes on the object yesterday on the plaza in front of the Gila River Arena.

The damn scale was in direct sunlight. It had to be calibrated. And employees of the newly formed Arizona Athletic Commission kept groping her.

Leave a laptop in the sun on the plaza in Glendale and in twenty minutes it's cooked. Why wouldn't the electronic scale cook?

Finally, when David Lemieux and David Benavidez climbed on the scale, the screen protected by a binder held by a person, indicated 166.2 for Lemieux and 166.4 for Benavidez.

Almost two pounds under weight? Had the sun made the scales lose its head? Michel Hamelin looked doubtful: "I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying that they haven't stopped fiddling with the scales. It's not supposed to happen this way,” said Hamelin.

In fact, everyone was worried that Benavidez wouldn't make the cut and now we found him at 166 pounds. What is gaming? Had the weigh-in been rigged to make sure he wasn't at risk?

IN THE RULES

Actually no. Both Marc Ramsay and Camille Estephan were satisfied in the afternoon: “They had to change the scale batteries three times. They were cooking,” explained Estephan.

And Marc Ramsay, who travels with his calibrated instruments, agreed with the boss of Eye of The Tiger Management: “David weighed 167.2 pounds when he left the hotel. With the heat and the trips, especially since he hasn't been drinking, that explains the lost pound. That's not where it's at,” Ramsay said.

In fact, it's going pretty well. There is respect. But Quebecers are not at home. At the entrance to the waiting room before the weigh-in, Camille Estephan and Virginie Assaly, the general manager of EOTTM, were unable to join Lemieux and Ramsay: “But Benavidez entered with around twenty people from his entourage. and his family. Everything is done to benefit the local boxer. But we have experienced much worse, ”says Estephan.

We saw Jean Pascal having to take a plane at six in the morning to go to Miami to face Elbiali. Or Marc Ramsay's boxers being forced to change hotels because of alarms going off at night on the floor occupied by the group: "Or they put us up in very noisy hotels to prevent the boxers from having good nights,” Ramsay recalls.

TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF

When Bermane Stiverne faced Deontay Wilder, the two were staying on the same wing. “Except Wilder had his whole gang, a hundred people and we were just a small group. We had to change wings because we would have had a fight before the fight, ”recalls Estephan.

In Phoenix, we have planned for the unexpected. To avoid being carried around in overloaded cars, we rented SUVs to be autonomous. And we checked the quality of the rooms at the hotel. You have to check the choice of gloves and everything that surrounds a boxing gala. We trust, but we prepare in case of bad surprises.

And we must now decide on this fight which will undoubtedly be thrilling.

David Benavidez is younger, he's taller and has a massive reach advantage. He was already world champion twice before he was 25.

He is very aggressive, he hits hard and has an innate sense of the ring.

David Lemieux was world champion at 160 pounds. He punches hard and is a very smart man. He has a strong mind and a heart of a lion.

His style is sometimes one-dimensional, this will be a disadvantage if the fight exceeds seven or eight rounds.

Lemieux to win must do so by knockout before the eighth round. By taking the risk of getting inside Benavidez's guard. It's going to take a lot of courage.

For all these reasons, I choose Benavidez by unanimous decision or referee stoppage.

But the heart is with Lemieux...

So Lady Ju went to do a little grocery shopping. Proof that we feel safe, the customer just in front of her was wearing a nice colored toy.

A state-of-the-art 9mm Glock: “I usually carry two just in case. One for evildoers and the other for wild animals,” explained Joe The Man.

The guy should come and do his grocery shopping in Laval...