Brandon Figueroa is officially a WBC titleholder…
In a career-best effort, the 24-year-old Latino boxer knocked out Luis Nery in the 7th round to become a legitimate titleholder in the 122-pound division.
Their two-belt title fight ended with Figueroa putting Nery down for the count in their Showtime main event on Saturday evening at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
A right uppercut followed by a left to the body forced Nery to the canvas via delayed reaction knockdown, with referee Thomas Taylor counting him out at 2:18 of round seven.
“It feels amazing,” Figueroa stated after claiming Nery’s WBC 122-pound title while defending his secondary WBA belt. “It’s a dream come true that I’ve had since I was seven years old. Now I’m here living it.”
The pair of unbeaten junior featherweights did their best to live up to lofty pre-fight public expectations of a slugfest. As much was expected by Nery and Figueroa from the moment they posted wins in separate bouts on the September 26 Showtime Pay-Per-View event in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Tijuana’s Nery became a two-division titlist that night, outpointing countryman Aaron Alameda to win the WBC junior featherweight strap. Figueroa tore through Damien Vazquez in a 10th round stoppage to defend his secondary WBA title to pave the way for a showdown with Nery.
Figueroa—born and raised in Weslaco, Texas—improves to 22-0-1 (17KOs). The unbeaten titlist landed 177-of-648 total punches (27%), including 173-of-533 power punches (32%). None were bigger than the left hand that put Nery down and done for the night.
“I know everybody doubted me, but it’s all hard work,” Figueroa noted. “We did our homework. We took our time and just took it to him. Joel (Diaz, Figueroa’s trainer) kept telling me to pressure him, that he wasn’t going to last. I did just that.”
Figueroa was ahead 58-56 on the scorecard of Zachary Young at the time of the stoppage, while Dr. Lou Moret had it 59-55 in favor of Nery. Edward Hernandez Sr. saw the action even at 57-57, with Figueroa ultimately taking it out of the judges’ hands.
The win comes two weeks after older brother Omar Figueroa suffered a knockout loss to Abel Ramos in this very venue. The younger Figueroa also came through for his family in August 2019, scoring a 4th round knockout of Javier Chacon at home which came one month after Omar suffered his first career defeat.
This arena holds a special place in Figueroa’s heart, having won the WBA interim junior featherweight title in an 8th round knockout of Yonfrez Parejo in April 2019. He was eventually upgraded to “World” champion though still secondary to WBA “Super titlist Murodjon Akhmadaliev (9-0. 7KOs).
Figueroa now holds the WBC belt and has a chance to add the WBO strap when he faces defending champ Stephen Fulton (19-0, 8KOs) on September 11. Fulton will be the favorite heading into the bout, though Figueroa is already used to that as the majority of industry insiders pegged Nery to prevail.
