Casimero Drops Nery Six Times In Brutal KO Win

John Riel Casimero revived his turbulent career in spectacular fashion in Japan, flooring Luis Nery six times before finishing the Mexican in the fourth round of a violent and one-sided encounter at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname.

It was billed as a meeting of two former world champions with plenty of miles, plenty of menace and more than a little baggage between them. What unfolded was not so much a contest as a demolition job. Casimero, now 36-5-1, looked the sharper, colder and more dangerous man from the opening bell, while Nery, who falls to 37-3, never truly recovered from a disastrous first round.

The first warning arrived almost immediately. Inside the opening half-minute, Casimero found the left hook, the punch that would define the night, and Nery went down. It was not a harmless flash knockdown. His legs betrayed him, his balance deserted him, and Casimero, sensing blood with the instincts of a seasoned finisher, went straight back to work.

Nery was dropped twice more in the opening round, each fall underlining the same grim truth: he could not read the shot, could not defend it cleanly and could not impose his own rhythm. For a fighter once feared for his aggression and spite, he was reduced to reacting, reaching and walking into danger.

There was courage in Nery’s attempts to fight back, but not much judgment. Early in the second round, he lunged in and was caught by a step-back right hand, another knockdown that showed Casimero was not merely swinging for a finish. He was setting traps, using Nery’s forward rush against him and making the Mexican pay for every careless entry.

By the third, Nery’s pride was doing more work than his legs. He still tried to press, still tried to make it rough, but Casimero’s timing was the cleaner weapon. Near the end of the round, another left hook caught Nery high and sent him down for a fifth time. The count was beaten again, but the fight was now running on borrowed time.

The finish came in the fourth. Casimero narrowed Nery’s guard with a crisp right hand, creating the lane he wanted, then whipped the left hook across to the temple. This time, there was no meaningful recovery. The referee’s intervention was not just sensible, it was overdue mercy. The judges, for once, were spared the chance to make a mess of things.

For Casimero, this was a huge result at a stage when many had started to wonder whether the old menace had gone for good. He has always been erratic outside the ropes, but inside them, he remains a dangerous, heavy-handed opportunist who needs only a split-second mistake to ruin a man’s evening.

For Nery, the defeat is far more troubling. He was stopped by Naoya Inoue in 2024 after famously dropping the Japanese superstar, but this was different. Against Inoue, he had his moment. Against Casimero, he had precious few. Missing weight only added to the sense that a fighter's discipline and durability are both under serious question.

Casimero called for Inoue afterwards, as expected. Whether that fight is realistic is another matter. Inoue operates at a level where mistakes are punished with brutal economy, and Casimero’s own inconsistencies cannot be ignored. But nights like this keep a fighter in the conversation. More importantly, they remind everyone that Casimero, for all his chaos, still carries fight-ending power in both hands.