TOKONAME, Japan — Filipino three-division banger Johnriel Casimero made sure Philippine boxing won’t suffer three devastating losses on Saturday when he destroyed Mexican Luis “Pantera” Nery in four rounds in their scheduled 10-round catchweight clash at the Aichi Sky Expo.

Casimero got the job done when he sent Nery down to the deck for the sixth time with a crippling right-left combination, first to the body and then a left to the head that forced the Japanese referee to call a halt to the one-sided affair just 42 seconds into the round.

Nery’s head slammed on the canvas when he went down and the third man on the ring had no other choice but to pit a stop to his misery.

Earlier, Filipinos Vince Paras and Kenneth Llover dropped their respective assignments, leaving Casimero as the only one with the chance of averting a shutout for the Filipino boxers who fought in the same show.

“I knew I would take him out. I already knew about it as early as the first round (when I knocked him down twice),” said the 37-yar-old Casimero, who boosted his win-loss-draw record to 36-5-1 with 25 knockouts.

It could not be determined what’s down the road for Casimero but the name of pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue kept cropping up.

“I don’t know what’s the plan of Kameda Promotions. It’s up to him although he knows what (fight) I want,” said Casimero, whose performance was widely applauded by the spectators, many of them Japanese and a large group of Filipinos who came to see his explosive fighting style.

Casimero claimed that following another smashing victory, Inoue will have enough reason to stay away from him.

“This win showed why Inoue is afraid of me.”

It was another eye-catching showing by Casimero, who immediately made his intentions clear by decking Nery down in the first 30 seconds of their bout. He would score two more knockdowns shortly thereafter.

The Leyte native lifted his feet off the gas pedal a bit in round two and three but remained in control of the contest as he scored a knockdown each.

“I was convinced that I would knock him out and Nery doesn’t have what it takes to do the same thing to me,” he said.

But Casimero insists that Nery, who looked a lot bigger than him on top of the ring, was strong.

“He was really big and I looked small next to him,” he said.

So, where does this win would lead to?

“The fans want to see me fight one guy. We all know who that is.”

“That’s the fight the whole word wants to see,” he added.

Are you listening, Naoya Inoue?