The battle of the fierce and the fearless is taking place on 6 June in Tokoname, Japan.
After being shelved owing to the oil crisis, the mouthwatering matchup between Luis “Pantera” Nery of Mexico and Johnriel Casimero of the Philippines is set for ten rounds at the Aichi Sky Expo.
Kameda Promotions has set a catchweight of 124 pounds to give the two punchers more breathing space given their long history of not making weight.
No title is at stake but their respective careers are on the line with the victor gaining traction and the loser falling hard into the rabbit hole.
The southpaw Nery is the pre-fight bettors’ pick but Casimero is a very live underdog owing to his devil-may-care attitude and battle-readiness.
A couple of years back, Nery was crushed by pound-for-pound star Naoya “Monster” Inoue.
Casimero, though a bit inconsistent lately, remains tried and tested and appears to be the tougher one at this point in time.
This bout will take place on the same night two other Filipino fighters are seeing action.
Likewise, two world championship bouts are on tap on that very same night with International Boxing Federation champions Masamichi Yabuki (flyweight) and Willibaldo Garcia (super-flyweight) defending their respective crowns against Rene Calixto of Mexico and Andrew Moloney of Australia, respectively.
There is high interest on Yabuki’s clash with Calixto since the winner is mandated to defend against mandatory challenger Miel Fajardo of the Philippines.
Also seeing action in the stacked undercard are Kenneth Llover and Vince Paras.
Llover battles American Michael Angeletti in a duel of unbeaten punchers with a shot at the IBF bantam throne being held by Jose Salas Reyes of Mexico as reward for the winner.
Owing to his immense popularity, Casimero’s appearance is what Filipino fight fans are drooling over.