John Riel Casimero vs Luis Nery Preview June 6th, 2026
Former junior flyweight, flyweight and bantamweight champion John Riel Casimero of the Philippines travels to Tokoname, Japan this Saturday, June 6th to take on former WBC Super Bantamweight Champion Luis Nery of Mexico. The 10-round featherweight tilt supposedly at a catchweight of 124 lbs, can be seen live on ABEMA in Japan while fans in America may be able to catch it on ESPN+ and those in Latin America can see it on ESPN Knockout. The fight may also be available on YouTube in some regions. Nery last fought in October when he beat Sathaporn Saart of Thailand via an eight-round technical unanimous decision. In his previous outing in February, 2025 he stopped Kyonosuke Kameda in the seventh round to rebound from his May, 2024 sixth-round stoppage defeat to Naoya Inoue in a shot at the IBF, WBC and WBO Super Bantamweight Titles. Nery dropped the champion in the first round but Inoue returned the favour in the second and fifth rounds before ending the contest a round later. Casimero was last in the ring in December when he stopped Tom Mizokoshi in the fifth round. In his previous contest he dropped a 10-round unanimous decision to Kyonosuke Kameda in October.
Casimero vs Nery Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- John Riel Casimero +171
- Luis Nery -225
My Pick
The 37-year-old Casimero climbs into the ring with a mark of 35-5-1 with 24 Ko’s and has boxed 268 rounds since turning pro in 2007. He’s gone 9-2 in world title fights with 6 Ko’s and is 6-3 with 4 Ko’s against former, current, and future world champions as he has beaten Guillermo Rigondeaux, Zolani Tete, Luis Alberto Lazarte, Pedro Guevara, Amnat Ruenroeng and Charlie Edwards and was defeated by Ramon Garcia Hirales, Moruti Mthalane and Amnat Ruenroeng with Mthalane being the only man to stop him, which he did in five rounds in 2011.
Casimero’s other pro loss came at the hands of Jonas Sultan by 12-round unanimous decision in 2017. He’s also captured several regional and minor titles as a pro including the WBO Global Super Bantamweight Crown, the Philippines Boxing Federation Flyweight Title and the WBO Asia Pacific, Interim WBO and Interim IBF World Light Flyweight Titles. The former world champion previously held the IBF Light Flyweight Title from July 2012 to May 2014 and defended it three times as well as the IBF Flyweight Title from May to December 2016 which he defended once.
Casimero stands 5-feet-4-inches tall with a 64-inch reach and has pretty good power in his hands as 68.6 per cent of his wins have come by stoppage but he’s halted just three of his past seven opponents. Casimero has been stopped once himself but has a pretty reliable chin. He’s a solid and somewhat underrated or overrated pro defending on what side of the fence you sit on, but isn’t really that well known outside of Asia. However he has gone 15-4-1 with 10 Ko’s when boxing outside of his homeland. He was supposed to unify the bantamweight titles against Paul Butler a few years ago but made himself sick trying to make the weight and the proposed bout never came off, leading him to move up in weight.
Nery is a 31-year-old southpaw who has an impressive mark of 37-2 with 28 Ko’s and has boxed 196 rounds since making his pro debut in 2012. He measures 5-feet-5-inches tall with a 65-inch reach, so has an inch edge in height on Casimero as well as a 1.5-inch reach advantage. Nery also possesses good power in his fists as 75.7 of his wins have come by stoppage including four of his last five. Nery is fan-friendly boxer who usually throws punches in bunches and also owns a pretty solid chin despite being dropped three times and stopped by Naoya Inoue.
He won the vacant WBC Super Bantamweight Title in September, 2020 via a unanimous decision over Aaron Alameda but was stopped in his first defence via a body shot from Brandon Figueroa in the seventh round. Nery has also captured the vacant WBC Continental Americas Bantamweight Title with a 10-round unanimous decision over Martin Casillas in 2016 and the vacant WBC Silver Bantamweight Title with a fourth-round stoppage over Raymond Tabugon in 2016 after being dropped in the first round.
He stopped Shinsuke Yamanaka in the fourth round in 2017 to lift the WBC Bantamweight Crown. Nery fought Yamanaka in a rematch in 2018 but came in overweight to lose the title. However, he still managed to win the fight by second-round stoppage. He then won the vacant WBC Silver Bantamweight title again in October, 2018 with a third-round stoppage of Jason Canoy. He defended that belt with a ninth-round KO over Juan Carlos Payano in July, 2019 four months after stopping McJoe Arroyo after four rounds.
Since losing to Figueroa he’s bounced back with a split decision win over Carlos Castro for the vacant WBC Silver and the WBO Intercontinental Super Bantamweight Titles, then stopped David Carmona in the third round before halting Azat Hovhannisyan in the 11th round and Froilan Saludar in the second round. He was then dismantled by Inoue but bounced back with his wins over Kyonosuke Kameda and Sathaporn Saart.
Prediction…
Nery and Casimero are hard-hitting, exciting boxers but Casimero is now 37 years old and isn’t as powerful as he once was. Nery will be fighting in Japan for the fourth time while Casimero is making his fifth trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Both former world champions have experience against top-class opposition but based on their most recent performances I’ll have to give the edge to Nery here but there’s a good chance the fight goes the 10-round distance.
Nery is younger and in better form.
Play Nery -225 @ BetOnline.ag
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John Riel Casimero betting • Luis Nery betting