WBC suspends Mexican boxer Nery for failing weigh-in

Published Mar. 3, 2018 3:44 a.m. ET

TOKYO (AP) The World Boxing Council has suspended Mexican boxer Luis Nery for failing to make weight ahead of his bantamweight title match against Japanese challenger Shinsuke Yamanaka.

Nery beat Yamanaka with a second-round technical knockout on Thursday but was stripped of the title after arriving at the weigh-in five pounds overweight.

''For a bantamweight champion to arrive at the official weigh-in 5 pounds (2.27 kilograms) over is simply unacceptable. The WBC is formally suspending Luis Nery indefinitely,'' the WBC said in a statement.

The WBC has ordered Nery to appear at a hearing to conduct a thorough investigation.

Last August, Nery defeated Yamanaka, but a week later the WBC announced the 23-year-old had failed a pre-fight drug test, a result the boxer and his team claimed was due to food contamination.