Luis Nery (W) vs. Carlos Castro (L) – Results

The two-time Mexican world champion of the category, Luis “Pantera” Nery, faced the undefeated North American, Carlos Castro, in a very interesting fight in the super bantamweight division, where the WBC Silver title was at stake, last Saturday, February 5, at the Michelob ULTRA Arena, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Las Vegas.

Luis Nery, who arrived with an excellent record of 31 wins and 1 loss (24 of those victories by way of knockout), suffered the first defeat of his career when he was stopped by former world champion Brandon Figueroa in a 122-pound unification fight last May in Carson, California.

For his part, Carlos Castro (27-0, 12 KOs), born in Sonora and resident of Phoenix, Arizona, had remained undefeated throughout his career before this fight.

Luis Nery went out to eat the world and began the fight dominating in every way and, in the first round itself, Carlos Castro was surprised with a tremendous right hand that sent him directly to the canvas, it was then that the “Panther” went to finish the fight, but Castro managed to withstand Nery’s onslaught and survived the first round.

In the second round, Castro took the pressure off and tried to reverse the situation, so he began throwing punches with his left hand, which is his strong point, and managed to get Nery to slow down and, therefore, the number of punches he launched got down. At this time, the fight lowered in intensity.

It seemed that the fight could end quickly due to Luis Nery’s explosiveness, but it was not. Carlos Castro adjusted well to come back stronger and landed several shots on Nery.

The fight was closing; however, Pantera began to make his way around the ring and didn’t go as far forward. There were times when Castro traded blows, which was where it went least well.

Nery suffered a strong blow to the cheekbone, the product of a strong left hand that Castro threw, the wound was quite large, so the Mexican had to raise his guard and protect his face to take care of this open wound and look for an aggressive attack. The Mexican was looking, by all means, to finish the fight quickly, but Castro endured all the punishment he threw at him.

Finally, Luis Nery managed to take the victory in this fight by a split decision of 96-93 and 95-94, while the third judge gave Castro the victory with a result of 95-94.