Luis Nery is determined to keep winning so he can add his name to Mexico's rich championship culture.- The 26-year-old fights Saturday against America's baby-faced assassin
Brandon Figueroa on Showtime. - Victory tees up a second successive unification bout against
Stephen Fulton later this year.
26-year-old boxer Luis Nery is targeting a big win Saturday so it tees up a stake in Mexico's proud fighting history.
The southpaw has an unbeaten pro boxing record of 31 wins with 26 by way of knockout, and hopes to swat America's baby-faced assassin Brandon Figueroa to the side in their two-belt championship bout on Showtime.
Victory over Figueroa at the Dignity Health
From there, Nery told Insider he'd have eyes on winning a strap in a third weight division.
Not only would he want to walk around as a Mexican
But first thing's first, Nery has to fight Figueroa - and a win there is by no means guaranteed.
"Brandon is definitely a threat, and someone to look out for," Nery told us. "He has an aggressive style, and comes forward as a power puncher."
Showtime Sports President Stephen Espinoza called Figueroa a one-man stress test earlier this week, and a fighter fully capable of finding an opponent's weakness and then exposing it.
"Figueroa is a truth-teller," Espinoza told us. "He'll find your weakness. If your weakness is conditioning, he'll find that out. If it's defense, he'll find that out. When you're going through that all-out pressure assault from Brandon Figueroa, if there are flaws, there'll be apparent."
Nery pointed to his preparation with his head trainer Ismael Ramirez has reason to be confident against Figueroa.
"The most valuable lesson he has told me is to be smart I get in the ring," Nery said. "In training, we worked a lot of interesting combinations to counter the aggressiveness that Figueroa is going to present, and you guys are going to see the fruits of this labor on Saturday night in the ring."
What's at stake on Saturday?
Both combat athletes have a title on the line with Nery putting forward his WBC super bantamweight belt, and Figueroa hoping to defend his WBA championship in the same division.
The winner will claim both titles and will then be thrust into a September 11 fight against Fulton, a 26-year-old Philadelphian fighter who won the WBO belt after a big win over Angelo Leo earlier this year.
This is legacy on the line for whoever wakes up on the morning of September 12 with all three of these titles.
If it were Nery, he'd feel pride at not only further embedding his name into Mexico's championship boxing culture, but being able to share that success with his children.
"As far as my legacy goes, I would be so proud to have this distinguished place in Mexican boxing history and, more than anything, it will be a great story to tell my daughters one day where they'll be proud of dad and what he did in his career."