By Dan Ambrose: In a surprising upset, WBA super bantamweight champion Brandon ‘Heartbreaker’ Figueroa (22-0-1, 17 KOs) out-toughed WBC champ Luis ‘Pantera’ Nery (31-1, 24 KOs) in defeating him by a seventh-round knockout in their unification match at 122 at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
The 5’8″ Figueroa chose to fight Nery at close quarters, giving away his height and reach, and yet he found great success tonight using that tactic.
The fast pace that the 24-year-old Figueroa is what ultimately cost Nery the fight. He ore down and was stopped by body shots in the seventh round. The bout was stopped at 2:18 of round seven.
Figueroa fought Nery’s game for the entire fight, choosing to stay in close and trade bombs with the 26-year-old. Staying in close helped Figueroa take the power from Nery, as he wasn’t nearly the same puncher on the inside as he was when his opponents give him space to get his shots ff.
Initially, things weren’t going Figueroa’s way in the early going because he was getting hit a lot by Nery. But the game plan that Figueroa used to smother Nery’s power ended up working to perfection because he couldn’t do much of anything to generate power on his shots.
Now that Figueroa holding the WBA/WBC 122-lb title, he’ll be returning to the ring at the end of the summer to take on WBO super bantamweight champion Stephen Fulton on September 18th on Showtime.
Fulton is arguably a better fighter than Nery, and capable of doing more things. If Figueroa chooses to fight Fulton on the inside the way he did against Nery tonight, he couldn’t wind up getting knocked out.
Nery needs to make a decision on which direction he wants to go in for his career. This is the second poor performance from him since he moved up in weight to super bantamweight last year.
Danny Roman defeats Ricardo Espinoza
In the chief support bout on the card tonight, former IBF/WBA super bantamweight champion Danny Roman (29-3-1, 10 KOs) outsmarted Ricardo Espinoza (25-4, 21 KOs) in beating him by a 10 round unanimous decision.
things weren’t looking good early for the 31-year-old Roman, seeing that the 23-year-old Espinoza was using his superior power to walk him down and land heavy shots.
The scores for the Roman vs. Espinoza fight was as follows:
- 98-92
- 98-92
- 97-93
Espinoza has nothing to be ashamed of in losing to a talented fighter like Roman, who had a big advantage in experience over him.
With this win, Roman could potentially push for a rematch against IBF/WBA champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev to try and win back his two titles. Akhmadaliev beat Roman by a 12 round split decision in January 2020.