By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

The Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) announced that it indefinitely suspended formerly WBC bantamweight champion Luis Nery for his disgraceful overweight scandal of having tripped the scale at 123, no less than five pounds over the bantamweight limit, although he finally scaled in at 121 (still three pounds over the class limit).

It means the JBC actually permanently bans Nery from fighting inside of Japan. Nery’s excessive overweight case accounted for the JBC’s very strict punishment. The JBC stated in writing, “It was a notorious incident that seriously damaged the social reputation of the sport of boxing based on the weight system.”

Luis Nery destroyed the previously high respects of Japanese boxing fans to the Mexican boxing/boxers previously established by Miguel Canto, Guty Espadas, Ruben Olivares, Pipino Cuevas, Lupe Pintor, Ricardo Lopez, Jhonny Gonzalez, etc. who visited Japan to demonstrate their strength and sportsmanship—by a single boxer (if we call Nery boxer who couldn’t do his duty to make the stipulated weight).