Weslaco’s Brandon “Heartbreaker” Figueroa, the WBA World Super Bantamweight Champion, scored a seventh-round knockout of Luis Nery in the main event of Saturday night’s Premier Boxing Champions event on Showtime.
Figueroa (22-0-1, 17 KOs) retains his WBA World Super Bantamweight Championship and wins Nery’s WBC World Super Bantamweight title.
“It feels amazing. It’s a dream come true since 7 years old, now I’m here living it,” Figueroa said. “I know everyone doubted me, but yet here I am with the two belts. This is all hard work and dedication. All thanks to my family, Al Haymon, Joel Diaz, my father, my older brother, Weslaco, TX, the Valley – 956, baby, let’s go.”
Figueroa won the battle of unbeatens as his aggression, pressure and size took its toll on the smaller Nery.
“Heartbreaker” weathered an early storm from the two-division champion and made him pay just after the midpoint of the fight.
A left-handed uppercut to the ribs sent his opponent to the canvas for good during the seventh round. The loss is the first of Nery’s 32-fight career.
“I knew he was getting tired. He was trying to box me, I knew he wasn’t going to stay in there battling me,” Figueroa said. “The pressure was getting to him. I saw him breathing heavy, the body shots were getting to him and we said ‘Let’s go get him.'”
Next for Figueroa is a title unification bout against Stephen Fulton Jr. (19-0, 8 KOs), the WBO World Super Bantamweight Champion, on Showtime on Sept. 11 later this year. All three titles, Fulton’s WBO and Figueroa’s WBA & WBC Super Bantamweight Championships, will be on the line.
“We’ve been waiting for a while for this fight and it’s finally going to happen in September. I knew I had to get through Luis Nery and I did just that,” Figueroa said. “Everything with time. Now he’s going to have a hell of a show coming September. I envisioned I was going to beat Nery and I envisioned I was going to fight Stephen Fulton, so let’s get it.”
