Boxing Challenge: Figueroa Nails Nery

   

Luis Nery and Brandon Figueroa exchanged both hits and misses in an exciting fight that seemed to be headed towards an exciting conclusion for six exciting rounds.

In the seventh, the action ended quickly and conclusively as one left hook to the ribcage saw Nery wince in pain and fall to the floor where he was counted out, giving Figueroa a mild upset and Nery's WBC junior featherweight championship.

I had Nery slightly ahead after six rounds (58-56), but it did seem like the pace was affecting Nery more than Figueroa as his body language gave away his weariness at the end of round six.

Both fighters landed their share of punches (Nery 34% and Figueroa 27%), but there many awkward swings in the air throughout and it isn't because either fighter reminds anyone of Salvador Sanchez defensively.

Figueroa retained his minor WBA title, which confused viewers throughout as if you didn't know any better you would believe that Figueroa had unified two titles, but he had not as the true WBA titleholder is M.J. Akhmadaliev.

Still, Figueroa now holds a true world title and will actually unify with WBO champion Stephen Fulton in a scheduled September fight.

I'm glad that we are getting Figueroa-Fulton rather than Nery-Fulton not for any personal reason, but as I was watching the fight, I thought that a Nery-Fulton fight might be awkward pairing due to styles, but that Fulton-Figueroa looked like a very good meshing of styles.

Big win for Brandon Figueroa and he'll need to step his game up even further against the smooth boxing Fulton.

The co-feature was another entertaining affair as former WBA and IBF junior featherweight champion Daniel Roman took a few rounds to figure out aggressive Ricardo Espinoza but won the final six rounds on my scorecard to win a unanimous decision.

Roman busted Figueroa's face up badly with swelling and Figueroa might not have been able to make it through two more rounds had the fight been scheduled for twelve rounds rather than ten.

I had Roman a 98-92 victor.

Considering Roman's status as a former two-organization champion and the closeness of his loss to M.J. Akhmadaliev, shouldn't he be a mandatory challenger in one of the organizations?

In the opener, Money Team member Xavier Martinez won a clear but not easy unanimous decision over veteran Juan Carlos Burgos in a junior lightweight ten rounder.

There were no knockdowns in the fight, but plenty of punches pitched, and Burgos fought well, but was not able to keep pace with the younger Martinez.

I scored Martinez a 98-92 winner.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored four points on the weekend to move the totals to 66-64.