Luis Nery may not have a title around his waist or much goodwill left after a series of self-inflicted mishaps, but the 25-year-old “Pantera,” who fights Aaron Alameda for the vacant WBC super bantamweight title on September 26th, has some grand ambitions.
“At this moment, I want to fight at both 118 and 122 pounds,” said Nery. “There are a lot of great fights to be made in those weight classes. Sometime next year, I want to move up to 126-pounds so that I can dominate all three divisions.”
While I respect the hustle, Nery (30-0, 24 KO) will be hard-pressed to find any sanctioning body willing to let him fight for their bantamweight belt. He lost the WBC belt on the scales back in 2018 after failing a drug test, barely made the limit in his final eliminator against Juan Carlos Payano in July of last year, then missed weight by a pound against Emmanuel Rodriguez, resulting in the fight’s cancellation after Nery refused to try and cut the last bit of weight. While I wouldn’t put it past the WBC or WBA to give him another shot, his days at 118 are almost certainly done.
That said, he does have a specific target at 122 pounds.
“After I win this belt on September 26, I want Brandon Figueroa next,” said Nery. “I’m not overlooking Alameda at all, but if I had my choice, me and Figueroa would give the fans a great show my next time in the ring.”
Figueroa (20-0-1, 15 KO) is the WBA “world” champ, having been gifted the belt for beating Yonfrez Parejo last year, and represents Nery’s likeliest path to semi-unification. Unified champ Murodjon Akhmadaliev holds the “super” title, but is reportedly slated to face IBF mandatory Ryosuke Iwasa at some point in the near future, and I’d imagine newly crowned WBO champ Angelo Leo won’t be jumping right into the deep end in his first defense.