Luis Nery Wins WBC Title Eliminator With 11th Round Knockout Of Azat Hovhannisyan

Luis Nery won an exciting fight against Azat Hovhannisyan with an 11th-round knockout in a WBC World Super-bantamweight title eliminator held at the Fox Theater in Pomona, California.

The win makes Nery the WBC mandatory challenger to the unified WBC/WBO junior featherweight champion, Stephen Fulton.

The Mexican southpaw champ avoided a knockdown call in the first minute of the fight, then had to fight through Hovhannisyan's determined effort. Hovhannisyan took the lead in the second round, but Nery quickly seized control, landing left hands to draw blood under Hovhannisyan's right eye.

Hovhannisyan was forced to contend with a second cut on the right eyelid in the 5th round, which was ruled by referee Ray Corona to have been caused by a punch from Nery.

Despite Hovhannisyan's corner's warnings to avoid exchanges, he still preferred to fight and was able to respond nearly every time

Nery threatened to take the lead. In the closing seconds of the tenth round, Nery floored Hovhannisyan and had him out on his feet. Referee Ray Corona stopped the contest at 1:51 of the eleventh round, declaring Nery the winner of the instant classic.