Luis Nery basically had a guaranteed WBC bantamweight world title shot, but his latest stunt cost him that opportunity.
Nery was originally supposed to fight Emmanuel Rodriguez on November 23 as part of the pay-per-view main card for Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz 2, but at the weigh-ins, Nery came in at 119 pounds, one pound over the bantamweight limit of 118 pounds. Instead of trying to find a way to lose the extra pound in the hour that he was given, he unsuccessfully tried to strike a deal with Rodriguez that would have kept the fight intact while avoiding the need to drop an extra pound.
Rodriguez's team declined and the fight was ultimately scrapped. In an interview with ESPN Deportes, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman said Nery is no longer the mandatory challenger to the WBC title currently held by Nordine Oubaali. Sulaiman is now hoping that Nery would go to either super bantamweight or even all the way up to featherweight.
"Absolutely [he's no longer the mandatory challenger]. He should no longer be at bantamweight. Our recommendation is that he should move up to super bantamweight and featherweight. He's now submitted to a program, a nutrition regimen and we'll have to see if he'll succeed," Sulaiman said.
This isn't the first time that Nery has missed weight for a big bantamweight matchup with a prior instance costing him the WBC title back in early 2018. In this case, Sulaiman understood that it wouldn't have been healthy for Nery to attempt to lose the excess weight against Rodriguez.
"He couldn't lose any more weight. It was just a pound, but it wouldn't have been inhuman even attempting [to lose the extra pound]," Sulaiman said.
There is no word on what the status of the mandatory challenger situation for the WBC bantamweight title will be or if Rodriguez will be named the new mandatory challenger.
