(Montreal) Tempers flared between Steven Butler and Patrice Volny during the official weigh-in for their championship fight on Thursday at the Montreal Casino.
During the traditional face-to-face, Butler (34-4-1, 28 K. ––W.) violently pushed back Volny (18-1, 12 K. -O.) after the two men had gotten closer so much so that their foreheads were touching.
The clans of the two men quickly intervened without going any further, thus allowing the two pugilists to save all their energies for the gala, where they will try to get their hands on the French-speaking middleweight belt of the World Boxing Council ( WBC).
Both men also respected the imposed limit of 160 pounds for this fight. Butler swung the scale at 159.9 pounds, while Volny posted a weight of 159.2 pounds.
Butler and Volny attempt to climb back into the top 15 of the world rankings with a victory on Thursday.
Two other belts will be on the line at the event. Cuban super middleweight Osleys Iglesias (10-0, 9 KOs) will put his International Boxing Organization (IBO) world title on the line against Ukrainian-born American Evgeny Shvedenko (16-1-1, 7 KOs). Weights of 168 and 167.8 pounds have been entered on their cards, respectively.
Things got complicated for the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) super-lightweight title, where Toronto’s Arthur Biyarslanov (14-0, 12 KOs) will face Argentina’s Elias Mauricio Haedo (14 -5, 19 K. -W.).
Having to meet the 140-pound limit, Haedo initially showed up 1.3 pounds overweight at midday. In order to be eligible to win this belt –– and to avoid paying 20% of his purse to Biyarslanov-Haedo had to lose his excess weight by 2 p.m.
He finally appeared before the officials of the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux with a weight of 139.6 pounds, to everyone’s satisfaction. Biyarslanov (139.7) was already digesting his meal at this point.
Shamil Khataev, Jhon Orobio and Luis Santana will also be in action starting at 7 p.m. The six fighters involved in these three clashes all respected the limit. The gala will be available on PunchingGrace.com and ESPN in the United States.