Tag Archives: junior featherweight

Erika Cruz to Defend WBA Junior Featherweight Title Against Nazarena Romero

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Erika Cruz is going on the defensive…

The 33-year-old  Mexican professional boxer will defend her WBA junior featherweight title against Nazarena Romero on Saturday, May 11, per promoter Matchroom Boxing.

Erika Cruz,The fight at the Palenque de la Feria National de San Marcos in Aguascalientes, Mexico, will be the co-main event of Eduardo Hernandez‘s junior lightweight bout against Daniel Lugo.

Cruz (17-2, 3 KOs) is a two-division champion. She won the WBA featherweight belt with a technical decision victory over Jelena Mrdjenovich in April 2021. She made two successful defenses before losing the title to Amanda Serrano in a unification bout in February 2023. Cruz then moved up in weight and defeated Mayerlin Rivas in November to grab the WBA title at 122 pounds.

Her focus now is on title unification.

“I’m stepping into the ring not just to defend my title, but to conquer,” Cruz said in a news release. “Romero may be the mandatory opponent, but my sights are set on bigger dreams. Yamileth Mercado [WBC], Ellie Scotney [IBF], Segolene Lefebvre [WBO] — I’m coming for all the belts. Romero won’t be the one to stand in the way of my destiny.”

Romero (13-0-1, 7 KOs), of Argentina, will be fighting in her second consecutive title bout. In June, she challenged Rivas for the WBA junior featherweight belt, but the bout ended in a technical draw after Romero, who suffered a cut over her left eye because of an accidental clash of heads, was unable to continue. She now has another chance at the same belt against Cruz.

“I think my time has come,” Romero said. “In my life nothing was, is, or will be easy. I was born for this, and I feel like the best of all. I prepare like a champion, I think like a champion and I need to live like a champion.”

Luis Nery to Reportedly Fight Naoya Inoue in Tokyo This May

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Luis Nery is heading back to the ring in the near future…

The 29-year-old Mexican boxer and Naoya Inoue have agreed to a deal for a May fight in Tokyo for Inoue’s undisputed junior featherweight championship, per ESPN sources.

Luis NeryInoue (26-0, 23 KOs) claimed ESPN Fighter of the Year honors when he KOed Marlon Tapales in Round 10 last month to become undisputed champion.

The Japanese star’s victory followed an eighth-round TKO win over Stephen Fulton in July, when Inoue claimed two titles in his 122-pound debut. Inoue, 30, is ESPN’s No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer.

Nery (34-1, 26 KOs) received an indefinite suspension from the Japan Boxing Commission in March 2018, but officials involved have been assured the Mexican will be reinstated, sources said.

The ban was handed down following Nery’s pair of stoppage wins over Japan’s longtime champion Shinsuke Yamanaka.

Nery scored a fourth-round TKO win over Yamanaka to capture the WBC bantamweight title in August 2017, but was suspended afterward when the banned substance zilpaterol was found in his system.

Nery argued the adverse finding was the result of tainted meat consumed in Mexico.

In the March 2018 rematch, Nery stopped Yamanaka in Round 2 but did so after he weighed 121 pounds for a 118-pound title bout. The pair of violations led to the ban.

But Nery earned a shot against Inoue, who usually fights in Japan, when he scored an 11th-round KO over Azat Hovhannisyan in February. The WBC title eliminator was named ESPN‘s runner-up for Fight of the Year.

Nery has won four consecutive fights since his lone professional defeat, a seventh-round TKO vs. Brandon Figueroa in a May 2021 title fight. Nery is rated No. 3 by ESPN at 122 pounds.

Against Inoue, Nery faces long odds to become a two-time junior featherweight champion. “The Monster” is a generational talent fighting at the peak of his powers.

Inoue’s undisputed title victory over Tapales was remarkably his second in as many weight classes in the past year. Inoue stopped Paul Butler in the 11th round of their December 2022 meeting to become undisputed champion at 118 pounds.

Inoue also reigned as champion at 108 and 115 pounds.