By Elliot Worsell
NOT content with beating a pair of fellow champions in 2023, there is now a good chance that Naoya Inoue, the world’s number one super bantamweight, could fight Luis Nery, a dangerous former 122-pound champion, in May 2024.
That’s according to ESPN, who says Inoue, 26-0 (23), and Nery, 35-1 (27), have agreed to a fight in Tokyo, with Inoue’s undisputed title on the line. They also claim that Nery’s (lifetime) ban from competing in Japan due to past transgressions (missing weight and a doping violation) will not be an issue in terms of ensuring the fight takes place. How that can be is not entirely clear at the moment (this is boxing, remember), but either way, a fight between Inoue and Nery, wherever it happens, is exactly what the doctor ordered.
From Inoue’s point of view, there can be no better challenge. After all, with impressive victories over Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales now behind him, and with their belts snatched as if they were his all along, the immediate concern was that Inoue would soon run out of decent opponents and be forced to search for them. to jump another weight class (to featherweight). In Nery, however, he finds an opponent who is not only dangerous – possibly the most dangerous opponent he has faced to date – but a natural super bantamweight, someone whose first world title was actually secured at bantamweight. .
Luis Nery (Amanda Westcott/Showtime)
In fact, Nery won that WBC bantamweight belt with a fourth-round knockout of Shinsuke Yamanaka, another Japanese fighter, in Kyoto in 2017. It was considered a breakout performance at the time, only for Nery to later test positive for zilpaterol. , a prohibited substance. and undo all his good work. As everyone does, the Mexican had an excuse for the booing, blaming it on food contamination, but most in boxing had very little sympathy for him at the time. In fact, it was only the WBC who believed Nery. On October 31 of that year, about two months after the fight, they ruled that the test could be justified with the excuse of contaminated food and therefore allowed the result of the fight to stand. They then ordered a rematch between Nery and Yamanaka for the following March.
The second time, it wasn’t a drug problem that tarnished Nery’s reputation, but a weight problem. Three pounds over the bantamweight limit, Nery gave the impression of a fighter who hadn’t even tried before stepping into the ring and knocking down Yamanaka in two rounds. It was a messy and violent end to a brief rivalry riddled with controversy and the WBC belt, formerly of Nery, was now vacant.
Later, although she had outstayed her welcome, Nery finally gained weight. It was there, at super bantamweight, where he not only earned another WBC belt, but he also suffered his first professional loss. That happened against Brandon Figueroa in 2021 and saw Nery stopped in seven rounds.
Three years later, he appears to be on the verge of competing for world honors again, only this time against Naoya Inoue, a fearsome fighter who has only gone the distance once since 2016.
