As the second bout on the Thurman vs. Pacquiao undercard, former WBC Bantamweight Titlist 🇲🇽Luis Neri (30-0-0, 24KO) and former WBA Titlist Juan 🇩🇴Carlos Payano (21-3-0, 9KO) mixed it up and fought a competitive fight.
The Dominican Payano fought very well early, circling and countering, taking advantage of Neri’s plodding foot work, while Neri couldn’t find spots to throw his big left hand. While Payano was tacking on the points, and seemingly jumped out to a lead, he started losing gas in the middle of the fight, and Neri stared to come on late, taking harder steps in to get in his range to hit Payano with right hooks and left crosses. Neri started connecting with more shots to the body that further gassed Payano out, and eventually landed the big one in the 9th round, a thudding left hand to the ribs that crippled Payano and put him down for only the third time in his career. He would not get up from that as he rolled around in agony on the canvas from the impact of the punch, and Neri secured his 10th knockout in a row. He retained his secondary WBC “Silver” Bantamweight belt, which puts him in a very good position in hopes to secure a fight with WBC World Titlist 🇫🇷Nordine Outbaali in the near future.