By Jim Dower: Luis Nery (22-0, 18 KOs) may see his 4th round knockout win over WBC bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka (27-1-2, 19 KOs) soon erased, as his B-sample test was reportedly shown to be positive for a banned substance Zilpaterol, according to RingTV, from their fight last month on August 15 at the Shimazu Arena, in Kyoto, Japan.
Nery, 22, made easy work of the 34-year-old Yamanaka, stopping him in the 4th round to take his WBA 118 lb. title away from him. Unfortunately for Nery, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be the WBC champion for long. The positive drug test for both his A and B samples from that fight suggests that he’s going to be stripped of his title, and Yamanaka’s loss will be erased from his record.
It’s unclear if Nery ate meat that was contaminated with the Zilpaterol with the banned drug. Nery is a very talented fighter. He looks to be the best fighter in the bantamweight division right now. The positive drug test for Nery is a huge setback for the talented Mexican fighter, because he was poised to take over the 118-lb. division to become a star.
If Nery must claw his way back to where he was over the next 2 to 3 years, it would be a huge disappointment. Nery looked so much better than Yamanaka in that fight. I’m sure that he would love a rematch with Yamanaka, but I doubt that’ll happen now.
Yamanaka would look good if he gave Nery a rematch so he could show that he was always the better fighter of the two, but it’s doubtful that he’ll do that. Nery looked so much better than Yamanaka. I think it would be a mistake on Yamanaka’s part to fight Nery unless he was forced to.
World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman will make an announcement this week on Nery’s B-sample test. At that time Sulaiman will likely say what he plans on doing in terms of stripping Nery of his title.
Ring Magazine already plans on making Yamanaka their Ring bantamweight champion once again. Nery will be removed from the Ring’s top 10 rankings for the bantamweight division.
There’s no word whether Nery and Yamanaka will fight a rematch. My guess you won’t see a rematch between them for a long time if ever. That’s probably good news for Yamanaka, because Nery was too fast for him. Nery didn’t beat Yamanaka based on power or size. What Nery did was attack the aging 34-year-old Yamanaka was blistering fast flurries. It looked like a younger fighter with more hand speed and combination punching beating up on an older fighter.
The way that Nery beat Yamanaka, I think he would do it no matter how many times the two fighters face each. Nery is too young, too fast and too skilled for the aging Yamanaka right now. The WBC would be giving Yamanaka a huge break if they drop Nery from their top 15, because it could take a long, long time before he gets ranked high enough to get a rematch with Yamanaka. By that time, someone else will likely unseat the Japanese fighter. I think Nery would easily KO Yamanaka if they fought again.
Nery’s upset win over Yamanaka ended the Japanese fighter’s string of 12 consecutive successful title defenses he’d put together since capturing the WBC title 6 years ago in 2011. Yamanaka was rated highly in Ring’s top 10 pound for pound list before his knockout loss to Nery.