Luis Nery (boxer)

Luis Esteban Nery Hernández (born December 12, 1994) is a Mexican professional boxer. He is a two weight world champion, having held the WBC and Ring magazine bantamweight titles between 2017 and 2018, and the WBC super bantamweight title from 2020 to 2021. Nicknamed "Pantera", Nery is known for his exceptional punching power, possessing a knockout ratio of 77.14%.

As of April 2024, Nery is ranked as the world's third best super bantamweight by BoxRec,^[1] TBRB,^[2] ESPN,^[3] and forth best by The Ring.^[4]

Nery was born and fights out of Tijuana. He only fought 9 amateur bouts, winning all of them. Five of them ended by way of knockout.^[5] Nery made his professional debut in May 2012 at the age of 17.

Nery won his first 18 fights before challenging for the vacant WBC Continental bantamweight title against Martín Casillas. Casillas was knocked down twice during the fight as Nery took a unanimous decision (100-88, 99–89, 98–90). Nery's one defense of that regional title came against former interim super flyweight world champion David Sánchez. After an early head clash that threatened to stop the fight, Nery dominated Sánchez landing a series of power punches that broke Sánchez down. The former interim titlist was knocked down in the 5th round and retired on the stool.^[6] In December 2016, Nery was knocked down for the first time in his pro career in the first round of a bout against Raymond Tabugon. Despite the knockdown, the fight was mostly one-sided as Nery battered Tabugon until the referee stopped it in the fourth round.^[7]

Although Nery spoke of challenging for a super flyweight title,^[5][8] his first shot at a world title would come against WBC and The Ring bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka on August 15, 2017, which he won with a sensational fourth-round stoppage. The bout started with both fighters trading back and forth combinations, but at the start of the fourth round Nery rocked Yamanaka with a left cross. After a brief respite in which Yamanaka seemed to regain control, Nery continued pummeling the defending champion, who was unable to defend himself. Yamanaka's corner eventually rushed into the ring to protect their fighter, giving Nery the win.^[9] The fight was seen by an audience of over 7 million in Japan.^[10]

On August 24, it was reported that Nery tested positive for zilpaterol, a banned substance.^[11] The sample that tested positive was taken on July 27, while three samples that were taken in August tested negative. Nery claimed he had failed the drug test due to food contamination.^[12] After Nery's B-sample confirmed the result, The Ring reinstated Yamanaka as their bantamweight champion. ^[13]

With the WBC yet to make a public ruling, it was announced Nery would be facing Arthur Villanueva in a non-title bout in his hometown, Tijuana, at Estadio Gasmart on November.^[14] In front of a crowd of 16,000, Nery defeated Villanueva with a round 6 TKO, despite being knocked down in round 4. Villanueva claimed that the stoppage was "premature".^[15][16]

On October 31, the WBC made its final ruling on Nery's positive test. The sanctioning body concluded that the positive test was due to contaminated food. Consequently, the result of the Yamanaka-Nery title bout wouldn't be overturned but the WBC ordered a rematch, which was eventually scheduled for March.^[17]

Nery was once again successful in the rematch, claiming victory with a second-round TKO.

From the outset, Yamanaka attempted to box more conservatively from the outside and had some success in this regard. Nery, however, fired back with a series of savage combinations which visibly hurt Yamanaka, before knocking him down with an overhand left.

The following round was more of the same as Nery stalked and attacked continually, knocking Yamanaka down a total of three times before the fight was waved off.

Ultimately, as Nery weighed in three pounds over the bantamweight limit at 121lbs, the WBC bantamweight title was only at stake for Yamanaka and subsequently became vacant.^[18]

On 16 March, 2019, Nery battled former IBF super flyweight champion McJoe Arroyo. Nery dropped Arroyo once in the second and third round, and twice in the fourth round. After the end of the fourth round, Arroyo's corner informed the referee to stop the fight. Nery won the bout via 4th round retirement.^[19]

On July 20, 2019, Nery fought former WBA bantamweight champion Juan Carlos Payano. Nery had his own way for most of the fight, landing the cleaner shots throughout the fight. In the ninth round, a perfectly placed left hook to the body by Nery send Payano to the canvas. Writhing in pain, Payano was not even able to attempt to beat the count, leading to a ninth-round KO win for Nery.^[20]

On September 26, 2020, Nery faced Aaron Alameda for the vacant WBC super bantamweight title. Alameda was ranked #6 by the WBC at the time. Nery won the fight via unanimous decision, winning on all three scorecards, 118-110, 116-112 and 115-113.^[21]

In his next fight, Nery fought WBA regular super bantamweight champion Brandon Figueroa in a unification bout. Nery was seen as a favorite to beat Figueroa, with opening odds seeing Nery as a -400 favorite and Figueroa at +275, although the line later saw Nery drop to -225 and Figueroa rise to +175.^[22] Nery started bright and was dominating the fight, but Figueroa managed to drop Nery in the seventh round, as Nery was getting up from the canvas, referee Thomas Taylor decided to wave the fight off with a really fast count, handing Nery the first defeat of his career.^[23][24]

In his next fight, Nery fought Carlos Castro, ranked #2 by the WBO, #3 by the WBC and IBF and #13 by the WBA at super bantamweight.^[25] Nery dropped Castro in the first round and boxed well in the rest of the fight to get a split-decision win over Castro, 96-93, 95-94 and 94-95 on the scorecards in his favor.^[26]

On October 1, 2022, Nery moved up to super featherweight for the first time to take on former super flyweight title callenger David Carmona. He won the fight by third round technical knockout.

On February 18, 2023, Nery fought WBA super bantamweight mandatory challenger Azat Hovhannisyan in a WBC super bantamweight title eliminator. In a very entertaining and competitive fight, Nery managed to win by eleventh round technical knockout. The fight was later voted The Ring Magazine's 2023 fight of the year.

On July 8, 2023, Nery fought Froilan Saludar. He won the fight by second round technical knockout.^[27]

Nery was scheduled to challenge Naoya Inoue for the undisputed super bantamweight title on May 6, 2024 at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan.^[28] Nery got dropped three times and lost the fight by sixth round knockout.^[29][30]

• List of southpaw stance boxers
• List of Mexican boxing world champions
• List of world bantamweight boxing champions
• List of world super-bantamweight boxing champions

• Boxing record for Luis Nery from BoxRec (registration required)
• Luis Nery - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings at Box.Live