Boxing Challenge: Inoue survives knockdown

        "The Monster" was dented in the initial round by Luis Nery's left hook that knocked down Naoya Inoue in the first round for the first time in his career.

But Inoue responded with a left hook of his own in the second round that dropped Nery to the canvas and while Nery had his moments, Inoue dominated after the first round, added another knockdown in the fifth before finishing Nery in the sixth with a right hand that sprawled the challenger across the bottom rope to retain all four junior featherweight titles.

Nery, a former WBC bantamweight and junior featherweight champion, came with his best effort and landed his share of left hooks but Inoue was too fast and out of Nery's league, which says a lot as Nery received some consideration for top ten pound for pound a few years ago and entered the fight with only one loss since (a ninth-round knockout loss to Brandon Figueroa).

Naoya Inoue is just too good and is expected to face Australia's Sam Goodman in a fall fight that will count as one of Inoue's mandatory defenses.

In the co-feature, Yoshiki Takei completed the Japanese takeover of the bantamweight division with a unanimous decision win over Jason Moloney to take Moloney's WBO title.

All four of the titles in the 118-pound division now reside in the land of the Rising Sun with four different champions.

Takei lost a point in the second round for a low blow but controlled Moloney for most of the fight, although Moloney hurt Takei badly late in the final round, and had there been a round thirteen, Moloney may have been able to stop Takei but alas that round never occurred.

Takei won on the cards by scores of 116-111 times two and 117-110, my scorecard read 116-111.

WBA bantamweight champion Takuma Inoue retained his title by a unanimous decision over Sho Ishida but like his brother later in the evening, was knocked down in the first round.

Ishida did well early and seemed to be walking Inoue down but a busted nose that bled throughout the fight hampered the challenger.

The scorecards for Inoue were 118-109 times two and 116-111, while my card read 117-110.

In the cards opener, Seigo Yuri Akai retained his WBA flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Taku Kuwahara, who lost the second fight of his career, both to Akai.

Akai's winning scorecards were 118-110 and 117-111 times two with the latter score the same as my card.

There isn't a boxing challenge for this as I didn't have time to work on a preview or even post selections and I don't think it's fair for the competition to have me knowing my picks without putting them up on the site.

I wouldn't cheat but it removes any controversy.

Boxing Challenge: Action Packed Saturday # 2

  DAZN's Saturday undercards may have been less than impressive but their main events were top-notch and as mentioned earlier, Mauricio Lara's knockout of Leigh Wood placed a high standard for action.

Golden Boy's main event was more than a WBC eliminator in the junior featherweight division to decide the mandatory challenger to the Stephen Fulton-Naoya Inoue fight winner later this year.

Luis Nery's dance of violence with Azat Hovannisyan may have ended with Nery winning by eleventh-round knockout. Still, the previous ten rounds of combat were memorable enough to make even a disinterested viewer gape their mouth open with amazement.

The two scored only one knockdown, Nery's dropping of Hovannisyan near the end of the tenth round led to the fight's end in the following round but the exchange of blows over those rounds was the type of punches that shorten and take the edge off careers.

I had Nery slightly ahead at 96-93, same as two judges with the third giving Nery a 95-94 lead but I could understand a slight Hovannisyan lead after nine rounds before he was knocked down in the tenth.

Nery opened cuts around Hovannisyan's eyes in the third and fifth rounds with Hovannisyan staggering Nery in the fourth round and I thought Nery could have been in trouble, had he taken a strong follow-up punch.

The ninth round was a particularly savage round with toe to toe exchanges that saw each fighter buzzed during the three minutes but it seemed to sap Hovannisyan more than Nery.

I'm interested to see how much this fight took away from both fighters and I'd be surprised if either was the same at the world-class level.

However, boxing isn't always about what will be, it can be what is and was.

On this night, Luis Nery and Azat Hovannisyan painted a beautiful work of art at the top of the game.

No matter the future, they will always have that.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 26 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica:24 Pts (1)

Vince Samano: 15 Pts (2)

Boxing Challenge: Action Packed Saturday-# 1

    DAZN thought that they had the potential for two top-notch battles in the main events of their day/night doubleheader but potential can also be unfulfilled.

However, on this boxing Saturday, the expectations were not only reached, but they were also exceeded and at a time that the streaming service has raised their prices yet again along with placing their elite performers on pay-per-view, that was the right results at a time they were badly needed.

The earlier main event from Nottingham England saw Mauricio Lara strip away the WBA featherweight title away from Leigh Wood via a seventh-round knockout.

Wood had vowed that he would meet the constantly charging Lara in the middle of the ring and lived up to the boast by matching Lara punch for punch but paid a price for his decision in the first round when a clash of heads caused a gash over his left eye that would flow throughout the match.

The momentum swung from one corner to the corner and saw Lara buckle Wood in the second and the champion return the favor in the third before the next three rounds saw each fighter score to the body and head with strong punches.

After six, I had the fight even at 57-57 but the DAZN announcers had Wood building a lead and the judges agreed at 59-55 and 58-56 x2 and I had the feeling that Wood may have been beginning to take a bit of the edge off the usual attacks of Lara.

Then we hit round seven with again both fighters landing but Wood appeared to have a slight edge in the action until with about thirty seconds remaining, both fighters fired left hooks that landed.

However, it was Lara's that was shorter and faster as the hook sent Wood to the floor on his back.

Wood managed to rise and after he rose, there was a small movement in his legs but with under ten seconds remaining and seeming to have his head somewhat clear, Wood had a chance to ride the tide out to at least make it to his corner, although I liked Lara's chances in the eighth if he acted quickly.

Wood wouldn't receive the chance to fend off Lara as his trainer Ben Davison waved the white towel of surrender despite Wood's immediate protests to his corner.

I'm not sure that Wood would have survived the eighth but the decision was well-intended if somewhat misguided as Lara wouldn't have had any time to land more blows on Wood in the seventh.

Wood is contractually owed a rematch if he wants it, which I'm sure that he will, and the stoppage (along with the action) will give Matchroom a hook to promote Wood having a chance to reverse the result.

And it would be an interesting rematch with Wood's success and fighters like Lara often lose their best form overnight and often when not expected, so I'm okay with that, although Eddie Hearn mentioned after the fight that Josh Warrington may want a third fight with Lara with Wood perhaps given step-aside money and a shot at the winner.

I'm not as thrilled with that prospect as Warrington's aggressive style that lacks power forces him to come to Lara and while he can't hurt Lara, he has no choice other than to plow forward and take punishment.

That is punishment that Warrington isn't likely to handle over twelve rounds and I see that as a lopsided fight that Warrington cannot win.

And as good as Wood-Lara was, the evening main event was even better.

Back with that later...

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.

Boxing Challenge: Wilder crunches Ortiz, Callum Smith creaks by Ryder

For almost seven complete rounds, Luis Ortiz was trying to complete his rematch with Deontay Wilder such as a jockey that is attempting to hold the lead at a very slow pace to lessen the chances of a stronger closer coming off the pace for a victory.

However, when you have the fastest gun in the game on your side it only takes one shot to end a fight.
And it only takes one mistake even as Ortiz was landing well be on his way to winning another round when Wilder fired one right hand.
That right hand landed flush and when the smoke cleared, it was only Wilder standing and keeping the WBC heavyweight title via seventh-round knockout in Las Vegas.
I had Ortiz ahead 59-55 after six rounds and would have likely given him the seventh, had the round ended.
The fight wasn't filled with activity and could have been called dull as both fighters respected the power of the other and rarely engaged.
I'm not really sure what this fight answered that we didn't already know- Deontay Wilder can erase a lot of effective boxing with one shot and Deontay Wilder can look pretty ordinary against good fighters while he waits for one shot.
Wilder moves onto the rematch with Tyson Fury in what appears to be February in another intriguing
fight.
Tyson Fury is the one fighter that took Wilder's best shot and got up, and Deontay Wilder is the one fighter that proved that he can hurt Tyson Fury when he lands, so the rematch is certainly very interesting.
Now, if we can just talk PBC and Top Rank into a cross-promotional fight or two on the undercard.

The undercard looked promising and then crumbled before the fight.
My favorite fight between two of the top five bantamweights in the world was canceled when Luis Nery missed weight by a pound and Emmanuel Rodriguez refused to accept compensation to fight an overweight Nery, so the fight was sadly canceled.
I think I'm with Rodriguez here.
Rodriguez is coming off his first career loss, is fighting a very talented former champion that has a PED history and has a history of missing weight.
When you consider all of those facts, should you risk another second loss against a fighter that is stronger for not hitting the weight mark for a couple thousand dollars?
I completely understand Rodriguez not proceeding and since this fight was a WBC title eliminator, the fair thing is to declare Rodriguez the top contender and refuse to rank Nery at 118 pounds.
Considering it's the WBC, the likely decision is likely to make this the fault of Rodriguez and give Nery the mandatory position.
Sarcasm mildly intended.

And if you thought Luis Nery was unprofessional, please allow me to introduce Julio Ceja!
Ceja, a former WBC junior featherweight champion, entered his fight with minor Titleist Brandon Figueroa after a terrific try against Guillermo Rigondeaux that saw him on the wrong side of an early stoppage while leading on the scorecards.
Ceja's effort against Rigondeaux was the best ever against the Cuban ( other than his ill-advised attempt against Vasyl Lomachenko), so Ceja had some goodwill in the bank that went awry when
Ceja missed weight by a stunning FOUR and a quarter pounds!
To put that in perspective, Ceja would have been overweight for a featherweight title fight and this was scheduled for the 122-pound junior featherweight division.
Figueroa decided to accept the fight when he was both compensated financially and assured by the sanctioning body that he would not lose his minor title, should he lose.
And here is why the argument made by Emmanuel Rodriguez for not accepting the extra money against an overweight opponent made sense because Figueroa's normally a very good puncher and he just couldn't hurt the larger Ceja in an excellent fight.
Figueroa-Ceja ended in a draw and it was fun to watch, but Ceja had such an artificial edge with the weight advantage that you wondered just how much that played into the fight.
Ceja has been knocked out three times in his career, yet Figueroa, a very good puncher, couldn't move him at all.
I scored Ceja a 115-113 winner in a fight that was very close and felt bad for Figueroa in the situation.

The co-feature was another gift for Leo Santa Cruz, who seems to thrive on winning vacant titles against questionable competition and then sitting on them until he rises in weight.
Santa Cruz won his fourth world title (from three different organizations.) with a unanimous decision over Miguel Flores to add the WBA junior lightweight title to his trophy case and won few fans in doing so.
Santa Cruz fights usually follow the same pattern, landing lots of punches, with not a lot of power, and his overmatched opponents are defeated on the scorecards, but generally unhurt.
This fight followed that template as I gave Flores the first round and no others, so the scorecard isn't the issue for me.
My issue with Santa Cruz is this- he's talented and has won four "titles". but is only 1-1 against top-notch fighters, splitting a series with Carl Frampton and his two wins over Abner Mares after Mares had slipped past his best are his only other notable wins.
I'm not sure what the issues are with Santa Cruz, is it that he doesn't want to fight top opponents and is satisfied with belts and money?
Or is it that his promoters choose not to roll the dice and gamble Santa Cruz against someone that could beat him?
I wonder about the PBC sometimes in these situations with fighters that haven't fought good competition and how it happens with examples such as Santa Cruz, Gary Russell, and Gervonta Davis.
My guesses are as follows:
Gervonta Davis is a fighter that is "on the wrong side of the street" (I'm really beginning to hate that phrase) promotionally in his division and has a chance to win against the best in the game.
Davis has that kind of ability but needs a breakout win that PBC seems unwilling or unable to provide.
Russell has tons of talent but seems content to fight once a year, keep a title, cash a nice check, and not challenge himself.
Santa Cruz isn't as talented as the above two and has been protected from fighters such as Russell (both are featherweight champions with PBC and could easily fight) and either his management or promotion realizes this and is protecting him for as long as possible.

We move to DAZN with cards from Matchroom and Golden Boy and a very interesting result that has been overshadowed by the Wilder-Ortiz fight.

Matchroom's main event from Liverpool, England looked to be a stay busy fight as Callum Smith, who is looked at by most as the top super middleweight in the world, defended his WBA title against countryman John Ryder, who entered the fight on a four-fight upset streak with all four wins over undefeated or one-loss fighters.
However, the biggest name on Ryder's record was Rocky Fielding in a loss, so Smith was a prohibitive favorite to defend his title.
Watching the clips of the weigh-in, Smith looked to be a full division larger than Ryder, and with six inches in height and reach over Ryder, this seemed to be a mismatch.
AND that's why we fight the fights and why everyone makes mistakes.

In honesty, I watched this fight twice.
The first time that I watched it, I scored it 115-113 for Callum Smith with Smith holding off the late charge of Ryder, who won the final three rounds on my card.
After that, I went to bed having stayed up to watch Ohio State-Penn State, then Smith-Ryder and needing sleep before work.
When I got up, something was nagging at me about it, but I had to watch the other DAZN card, Wilder-Ortiz, etc and I put it aside.
Still, I talked to Fred Landucci and he asked me about my thoughts which made my earlier questions return.
In short, I rewatched it and my score changed to 115-113 for Ryder, who attacked throughout, took advantage of a seemingly overconfident and underprepared Smith and my rewatched card could be slightly kind to Smith.
Ryder was the stronger fighter, worked Smith over to the ropes and ripped away on the inside to the body of the bigger man.
I also thought that Ryder did much better than expected in the center of the ring where you would think Smith would not only want to be but where he would control the action.

I had the edge of rewatching to get things right which judges in live-action do not, but what seems to happen in fights where the huge favorite wins an unpopular decision is this- In those early rounds when fights are just starting to settle in, judges fall into a trap and score those early rounds for the fighter that's expected to win- because they think that's what should be happening rather than what is.
By the time that you realize that the fight isn't happening the way it "should", it's too late and there is how you get a bad call.
I would imagine a rematch is in order, but I have a feeling that John Ryder may have already fought the fight of his life once, and should a rematch be forced, Callum Smith is going to be ready.
Callum Smith is the better fighter, but John Ryder deserved the duke on this night.
A belated Hamburglar for this one.

The evening card for DAZN was a Golden Boy card with two of those wonderful minor belts from the WBA and saw an upset in the main event as Rene Alvarado tore apart Andrew Cancio like Gale Sayers through an overmatched defense.
Cancio had knocked out Alvarado in their first fight in 2015 and after two wins over highly regarded Alberto Machado, was thought to be a rising fighter with a great story.
Alvarado used his longer reach and surprising aggressiveness from the start to cur Cancio around both eyes and bloodied his nose to the point of Alvarado's white trunks appearing to be a light pink from Cancio's blood.
Cancio fought as bravely as he could, but he couldn't figure out how to avoid Alvarado's incessant offense in order to get inside to do his best work.
I had Alvarado ahead 69-64 (6-1) when the fight was mercifully ended in Cancio's corner at the end of the seventh round.
Cancio was becoming quite a story, but it is very possible that Cancio is a solid fighter that simply had the number of Alberto Machado.
We'll see if Rene Alvarado, also a solid fighter, can perform well against fighters other than Andrew Cancio.

In the other fight, China's Xu Can continues to impress in his move up the featherweight ladder with his unanimous decision win over Manny Robles.
Can reminds me a bit of Josh Warrington in that he throws a lot of punches and attempts to overwhelm his opponents with volume.
Funny that I should mention Warrington, who was the champion called out in the post-fight interview by Can and that would be a very exciting fight to see.
Neither fighter has world-class sting on their punches but in a fight between those two the ringside people counting the punches had better be ready to work overtime!
I scored Can the winner 118-110 over Robles, who took his first loss but had won his previous two fights by close split decisions and the bloom seems to be fading off a once-promising prospect.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica seven to five (the Wilder KO making the difference) to move my overall lead to 278-246.

I'm going to try to be back later with the Browns romp over Miami and looking forward to a rematch in Pittsburgh.
 

Boxing Challenge: Spence Dominates Garcia

(Frank Micelotta/Fox Sports)

Many observers talked themselves into Mikey Garcia's chances of pulling an upset over Errol Spence after watching Garcia's training and demeanor entering the fight.

What many people weren't looking at was just how disgusted Errol Spence appeared to be with Mikey Garcia and that was exactly how it played out in the ring as Spence dominated Garcia in a performance that was more cat vs dying mouse than cat vs mouse in a unanimous decision win that saw Spence win every round on every judge's card (120-108) to keep his IBF welterweight title.
I gave Garcia the second round by a hair and he wasn't remotely close to adding another as Spence landed to the head and body without exception and his left seemed to be almost magnetized to Garcia, who simply couldn't avoid it or the right for that matter.
There were no knockdowns scored and some of that can be noted to the chin of Garcia, who showed an excellent one in taking the booming blows from the larger man, but perhaps even more could be credited to Spence, who reminded me of Muhammad Ali in his famous "What's my name" bout against Ernie Terrell or Dwight Muhammad Qawi (then Braxton) in his title-winning battle over Matthew Saad Muhammad in just wanting to batter Garcia for as long as he could and wasn't interested in shortening his punishment time.
For Spence, it looks like it could be Manny Pacquiao next in a fight that might be very similar to what we saw against Garcia- a very skilled bigger man pounding a very skilled smaller man, although a title unifying fight against WBC champion Shawn Porter was discussed as well.
Either of those two opponents would be the most likely foe to face Spence next, although the fight that everyone, other than those associated with Al Haymon's PBC, wants to see is against WBO champion Terence Crawford, which is extremely unlikely to happen for a while if ever.
As for Garcia, the opponent was too much regardless of the size involved and even if Garcia, who still holds the WBC lightweight title, moves back down for the fight that most wanted to see him involved with against WBA/WBO 135 pound champion Vasyl Lomachenko, which has its own issues in getting signed, mainly Garcia's refusal to do business with former promoter Top Rank, one wonders what fighter would be returning to the division.
The beating that Garcia took over the twelve rounds against Spence was the type that fighters often aren't the same fighter after returning to their more natural weight as Chad Dawson and Kell Brook have shown in recent years.

Sometimes boxing politics produces math that doesn't add up.
Two fights that everyone wanted to see didn't happen to make one fight that few wanted to see beforehand and even fewer wished that they had seen after.
Only in boxing.

I only have seen the main event and the co-main as of this writing, but the first pay per view from Fox was almost universally panned on Twitter.
I've stated in the past that the Fox crew is the worst in the game currently (and they garnered plenty of gripes), but the undercard looked weak going into the evening and produced even less.
David Benavidez made his return from drug problems and blasted out J'Leon Love in two rounds in what passed as the semi-main event.
Love, who was entering after losing a decision to Peter Quillin and in typical PBC fashion received the bout instead of the winner and was rewarded with being dominated in impressive manner by Benavidez, who was stripped of his WBC title at 168 pounds, named "Champion in recess" and will be given an immediate title shot should he go through his mandated recovery hoops.
Benavidez may be given the next shot for new champion Anthony Dirrell, although the WBC will rule soon on Dirrell giving a rematch to Avni Yildirim after their controversial fight last month.
It's possible it could be Dirrell-Yildirim II next and then Benavidez, but knowing the WBC I lean towards Dirrell-Benavidez next with the winner mandated to face Yildirim in their next bout.

Former WBC bantamweight champion Luis Nery has always had more problems out of the ring instead of in it.
Nery, who is undefeated, has had fights be invalidated for PED use and missed weight by three pounds in losing his title on the scales, but when he is on weight- Nery shows top ten pound for pound ability.
Nery appeared her against the usually durable McJoe Arroyo, who rose in weight for this fight in what appeared to be a questionable decision beforehand against the powerful Nery,
Nery bounced Arroyo off the matt four times in four rounds before the corner of Arroyo wisely ended the mismatch after the fourth round.
If you are guaranteeing me that Nery will show up clean and on weight- Nery against Naoya Inoue ranks with the fights that I would most like to see in the game.

I wrote in the challenge preview that the best fight of the weekend was in Japan and it didn't disappoint as Kosei Tanaka defeated Ryoichi Taguchi via a unanimous decision to retain his WBO flyweight title
Tanaka was defending the title that he won from Sho Kimura last year in the TRS fight of the year and even though this fight wasn't quite to that level, it was still the fight of the weekend.
Taguchi, a former light flyweight champion, showed lots of grit, but the nine years younger Tanaka wore down the veteran and took the well-deserved nod.
I'd love to see a Tanaka-Kimura rematch, but the likely target for Tanaka may be at junior bantam where former flyweight champion Kazuto Ioka will be fighting for the vacant WBO title at that weight.
An Ioka victory and the WBO policy where champions that vacate a title and rise in weight zoom to the front of the line as the mandatory contender would create a huge fight in Japan between the pair.
Should that fight go the way of Tanaka, the biggest fight in Japanese history could be in reach at bantamweight-with Tanaka vs Naoya Inoue in a fight that could fill up the Tokyo Dome.

In the boxing challenge, I won seven points in Saturday to three for Ramon Malpica to stretch my lead to 61-56.
I scored two points each from the wins by Tanaka, Nery, and Benavidez with one point from Errol Spence.
Ramon won one each from the victories by Spence, Nery, and Benavidez.

My intent is to watch the ESPN+ card today (no challenge bouts) and watch the DVR of the Arizona Hotshots ending the undefeated run of the Orlando Apollos for a game review if time permits.
I still have plenty of passings and an inbox cleaning so watch for them early next week.

Boxing Challenge-Mid-Week from Japan

A brief note on the boxing challenge with two unusual mid-week championship bouts from Japan that saw Ramon Malpica and myself gain two points each from different matches.
I haven't seen the Roman-Matsumoto encounter as of this writing, so no insight from yours truly!

In the first of the two (not on the same card) California's Danny Roman retained his WBA junior featherweight title for the first time with a unanimous decision over Ryu Matsumoto.
Roman was reported to have won the bout by a wide margin despite being unable to score a knockdown.
Roman has been rumored to make his HBO debut in his next defense in what could be a unification fight against WBC champion Rey Vargas.

Meanwhile, a mess in the bantamweight division as Luis Nery steamrolled Shinsuke Yamanaka in two rounds in their rematch for the WBC 118 pound title.
Yamanaka had defended the title 12 times before being surprisingly stopped by Nery in the fifth round last August and was supposedly considering retirement after the loss.
Nery then tested positive for a PED and was not stripped by the WBC, but was ordered to face Yamanaka in an immediate rematch, who accepted reportedly because of the failed test.

Nery repaid the sanctioning body and Yamanaka by showing up and weighing 123 pounds!
What that meant was that Nery would have been one pound overweight for a junior featherweight title fight, let alone one in the bantamweight division!
Nery sacrificed the title on the scales, but Yamanaka went ahead with the fight after getting the usual bonus money for fighting a bigger (and unprofessional) fighter and would win the championship, should he win.
However, what usually happens in these cases did- the heavier fighter that didn't push himself to make weight came bigger and fresher and overpowered the fighter that did what was expected of him.
Nery knocked Yamanaka down four times in the fight and finished him off in the second round.
I suppose this is the last fight for Nery at bantamweight since he clearly cannot be counted to make weight and it was the last fight period for Yamanaka, who announced his well-deserved retirement after the fight.

Ramon Malpica picked two points for Nery's win and I added two for Daniel Roman's victory.
I lead the challenge 28-23.