Duarte’s shot at Richardson Hitchins, then the IBF junior welterweight champion, was canceled the morning they were supposed to fight February 21 at T-Mobile Arena. The Mexican contender thus wasn’t about to waste another training camp because the unprofessional Fierro continued a disturbing pattern of behavior by not making weight for their 12-round, 140-pound bout on the David Benavidez-Gilberto Ramirez undercard at T-Mobile Arena.

Fierro didn’t attempt to lose more weight. Representatives for him and Duarte instead reached an agreement on a Fierro’s financial penalty, believed to be $40,000, which left what’s almost an all-Mexican pay-per-view portion of the Benavidez-Ramirez undercard intact.

An unfazed Duarte wasn’t entirely surprised by Fierro’s failure to make weight. In the past nine months, Fierro withdrew from his rematch against Isaac Cruz on the morning they were scheduled to weigh in July 18 because he was hospitalized while trying to make weight, was disqualified during the third round for kicking Abraham Cordero in the groin October 4 in Tijuana and now this.

Their weigh-in incident only motivated Parral’s Duarte (30-2-1, 23 KOs) more to become the first fighter to knock out Fierro (23-4-2, 18 KOs). It also widened DraftKings’ odds to 10-1 in favor of Duarte, 30, defeating his 27-year-old opponent.

“He’s a good fighter,” Duarte told The Ring. “He gave Isaac Cruz a good fight. But in this fight with me, I’m going to knock him out. And after this fight, I want to fight Isaac Cruz.”

Tijuana’s Fierro lost a 10-round unanimous decision to Mexico City’s Cruz (28-3-2, 18 KOs) in February 2025 at T-Mobile Arena. Their fan-friendly slugfest was a “Fight of the Year” candidate that generated enough interest to schedule an immediate rematch.

Nothing has gone right for Fierro since that impressive performance on the Benavidez-David Morrell Jr. undercard 15 months ago.

“Well, I wanna apologize, first of all, to you, the fans, to Team Duarte, to Oscar himself,” Fierro told Miguel Flores, Premier Boxing Champions’ emcee, during a ceremonial weigh-in Friday afternoon at MGM. “I did everything I could to try to make weight, but the body just wouldn’t allow me.

“I passed all the preliminary weigh-ins, but this time it wasn’t meant to be. But regardless, tomorrow I’m gonna go out there and try to put on a show for you guys. It’s gonna be a war. You’re not gonna wanna miss it. And I’m gonna go for it all, regardless of what happened.”

The Duarte-Fierro fight is one of four on the pay-per-view portion of the Benavidez-Ramirez undercard, scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT; 1 a.m. BST).

Amazon’s Prime Video and DAZN will distribute the event in the United States ($79.99), along with various cable and satellite operators. Subscribers to DAZN’s Ultimate plan, which costs $44.99 per month in the U.S. and £24.99 in the UK, can view the five-fight show for no additional charge.