Nery-Figueroa Starts Roll Call Of Showtime Summer Fight Cards

Tonight in Carson, California, the WBC Super Bantamweight battle between unbeaten champ Luis Nery and unbeaten contender Brandon Figueroa will headline for Showtime Championship Boxing. And, their title fight will crank up several prominent world champions in feature fights this summer.

We covered it all with the host of Showtime’s boxing coverage, Brian Custer, on our latest “Big Fight Weekend” podcast. This, as senior writer for this site, Marquis Johns, joined me to discuss Nery-Figueroa and the upcoming schedule,

As Custer told us, he expects action from the jump from the 122 lb. champ, the 31-0 Nery, but also from his aggressive challenger, the 21-0-1 Figueroa.

“It has all the makings (of an action fight). Brandon Figueroa is an all action fighter. Even though he is tall and rangy for this weight class, he doesn’t fight like that. He fights like his brother: ‘I’m just gonna come forward. I’m gonna smother you.

And now you’ve got Luis Nery, who before had this knockout streak- 14-15 straight. was knocking everybody out. It was different though against Aaron Alemeda (went the distance). Now, he makes the step up to 122 lb., of course he wins the title,…but now people are questioning whether his power can carry up here to 122.”

The winner will have a chance at a unification bout later on in the Fall against the current WBO champion at Super Bantamweight, Stephen Fulton.

As we further discussed, June and beyond will feature WBC Middleweight Champ Jermall Charlo making his latest title defense June 19th, his brother Jermell going for Jr. Middleweight Undisputed status against Brian Castano, and also, multi-division world champ, Gervonta Davis, will headline a Showtime PPV from Atlanta, as well.

Saturday night’s co-feature will have former Unified Super Bantamweight world champion, Danny Roman, faces Ricardo Espinoza in a 10-round battle at 122 pounds. And, undefeated rising star Xavier Martinez meets former world title challenger Juan Carlos Burgos in a Super Featherweight fight scheduled for 10 rounds to open the telecast.