Neri, the favorite for Naoya Inoue’s next race, has been accused of doping in the past, but British media say: ‘There is almost no sympathy for those involved’: J-CAST News[Visualizza testo completo]

On January 9, 2024, the British boxing media “Boxing news” (WEB version) published a special article about Naoya Inoue (Ohashi, 30), the unified champion of all four super bantamweight divisions, and his next bout is considered a likely bout Critically he reported on past “doping accusations” against former two-division world champion Luis Neri (Mexico, 29).

• Naoya Inoue (Photo: Naoki Nishimura/Afro Sports)

“I don’t think there will be a better fight for Inoue.”

As for Inoue’s next fight, the American sports network ESPN (WEB version) reported on the 9th that Inoue has agreed to play a defense match with Neri in Japan in May. According to an article in a sports newspaper, Hideyuki Ohashi (58), president of Ohashi Gym, of which Inoue is a member, revealed that he is negotiating with Black’s group for the match. The Tokyo Dome was proposed as the venue.

In the article, he mentioned the match against Neri, saying: “There would have been no better match for Inoue”, and explained the reason as follows.

“After overwhelmingly defeating Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapares (at the world championships) to win the belt, Inoue feared that he would soon be unable to find a suitable opponent and would be forced to move up in weight again. But Neri is not alone the most dangerous opponent I’ve ever faced, he’s also a natural super bantamweight who won his first world bantamweight title.”

Although the same media highly praised Neri’s skill, they also criticized his past “mistakes” in Japan.

“The boxing community had little sympathy for Neri.”

Neri won two world championships in Japan in the past, both times he faced Shinsuke Yamanaka (Teiken) and won both fights, but he made “mistakes” outside the ring in two consecutive fights.

Suspicions of doping arose during the first match in August 2017. After the match it was discovered that he had tested positive for a banned substance in a doping test carried out before the match. The WBC, the sanctioning body that had jurisdiction over the match, conducted another doping test and, as the results were negative, no sanction was imposed. In his rematch with Yamanaka in March 2018, he was overweight at the weigh-in the day before, was stripped of the WBC world bantamweight title, and was suspended indefinitely by the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC).

Boxing News points out: “Neri’s fight against champion Yamanaka was considered groundbreaking at the time, but all the good work was undone when he tested positive for a banned substance after the fight.” “Neri apologized for his positive test for a banned substance.” blaming food contamination, but the boxing community had little sympathy for Neri. In fact, the WBC was the only one who believed him.

After being stripped of the WBC world bantamweight title, Neri won the deciding match for the WBC world bantamweight title in September 2020, making him the world champion in two weight classes. In May 2021, he lost in a title unification match to the WBA champion in the same weight class, leaving him titleless, but in February 2023, he won the WBC super bantamweight world challenger match and earned the right to challenge Inoue. His professional record is 35 wins (27 KOs) and 1 defeat.

2024-01-10 05:42:19
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