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Contrary to earlier reports, tomorrow night’s bantamweight showdown between Luis Nery and Emmanuel Rodriguez is officially canceled after Nery came in a pound overweight. The two sides attempted to negotiate a financial settlement for the fight to continue, but Rodriguez refused the terms. As a result, the rematch between Leduan Barthelemy and Eduardo Ramirez will open the four-fight pay-per-view.
As much as it sucks to see what was probably the weekend’s best fight go down the tubes over a single pound, I can’t say I blame Rodriguez (19-1, 12 KO). This is far from Nery’s (30-0, 24 KO) first offense; in addition to his failed drug test, he missed weight ahead of his rematch with Shinsuke Yamanaka and came perilously close to doing the same before his July fight with Juan Carlos Payano, initially coming in 0.5 pounds heavy and only making it after an extra hour.
Combine that with the fact that Nery didn’t even try to cut the remaining weight and it’s damn near impossible to give “Pantera” any benefit of the doubt.
It’s is beyond unacceptable at this point; if the WBC had any lingering credibility whatsoever, they’d rescind Nery’s mandatory status and make him campaign at 122. As is, they’ll probably just book him against champion Nordine Oubaali anyway.