Former two-division world champion Luis “Pantery” Nery from Tijuana, Mexico meets Azat “Crazy A” Hovhannisyan of Yerevan, Armeni in a WBC junior featherweight title eliminator at The Fox Theater Pomona in Pomona, California on Saturday.
The 34-year-old Nery (33-1; 25), who is listed at No 1 by the WBC and fights from the southpaw stance, made his pro debut in May 2012.
He won the WBC bantamweight belt on 1 March 2018 with a fourth-round technical knockout win over Shinsuke Yamanaka (27-0-2) and the WBC junior featherweight belt against Aaron Alameda (25-0) on 26 September 2020.
He lost the WBC junior featherweight belt on 15 May 2021 when he was knocked out in the seventh round by Brandon Figueroa.
However, he has come back to win his last two fights.
Hovhannisyan, 28, made his pro debut in May 2018, and in his first challenge for a world title he lost to WBC junior featherweight champion Rey Vargas on a 12-round points decision.
The other two losses on his record (21-3; 17) were on his pro debut and a six-round majority points decision against Walter Santibanes in November 2014.
This should be a closely fought encounter that could go either way.
The other main organisation champions are Stephen Fulton (WBC/WBO) and Murodjon Akahmadaliev (WBA).
On the undercard, super middleweight Shane Mosley, Jr (18-4; 10) meets Mario “Aguila” Lozano (33-10; 24) over 10 rounds.