Golden Boy Promotions put forth one of the best fights of the year thus far, as former world champion Luis “Pantera” Nery (34-1, 26 KOs) of Tijuana, Mexico stopped Azat “Crazy A” Hovhannisyan (21-4, 17 KOs) of Los Angeles in the eleventh round of a back-and-forth entertaining affair, with the time of the stoppage being 1:51.
With the win, Nery is now the mandatory for the WBC super bantamweight world title, currently held by Stephen Fulton Jr., with this highlight-reel win that took place at the Fox Theater Pomona and was broadcast exclusively worldwide on DAZN.
“I knew this was going to be a very difficult fight, Azat is a very tough fighter,” said Luis Nery after the bout. “We gave the fans an incredible show. I want the winner between Naoya Inoue and Stephen Fulton. I feel ready for a world championship.”
Luis Nery is now on a three-fight win streak after being stopped by Brandon Figueroa in May of 2021. Nery’s win put an end to Hovhannisyan’s seven-fight win streak that had spanned across four-and-a-half years.
“We are disappointed in this outcome, but that’s boxing,” said Azat Hovhannisyan, after the critically acclaimed fight. “There was a lot of back-and-forth action, and we did all that we could.”
The undercard saw super middleweight Shane Mosley, Jr. (19-4, 10 KOs) get a ten-round decision over Mario “Aguila” Lozano (33-11, 24 KOs), with the scores being 100-90, 99-91, 99-91, flyweight Ricardo “El Niño” Sandoval (21-2, 16 KOs) of Rialto getting a second-round stoppage over Jerson Ortiz (17-7, 8 KOs), with the time being 2:46. Local favorite, Rowdy “Legend” Montgomery (9-4-1, 6 KOs) of Victorville won a unanimous decision over Christian “Ruso” Olivas (22-9, 19 KOs) in an eight-round super middleweight bout to start the DAZN telecast.
“This fight showed me that I still have room to sharpen up a bit," said Shane Mosley, Jr., who is eyeing a big fight. "I only had three weeks to prepare, so all things considered, I feel like I got the job done. He’s fought with some tough guys so I knew this was going to be a hard fight. I wanted to get a big KO in front of the hometown crowd and make a statement. I was willing to be a lot riskier. My dream is still to become a world champion, and I’m going to do it.”
