Mauricio Sulaiman: Luis Nery Should Face Nordine Oubaali vs. Takuma Inoue Winner

Even though Luis Nery isn’t the next man in line for a shot at the WBC bantamweight title, Mauricio Sulaiman has stated that he will get his shot someday.

While in Kazakhstan for the July 6 MTK Global show, Sulaiman, the president of the WBC, told ESPN Deportes that bantamweight champion Nordine Oubaali should defend his title next against mandatory challenger Takuma Inoue. After that fight happens, Nery would then be the mandatory challenger for the title against the winner of an Oubaali vs. Inoue matchup.

Nery originally held the WBC title up until late February last year when he was way overweight before a title defense against Shinsuke Yamanaka in Japan. The WBC stripped Nery of the title and handed him a suspension that lasted several months.

During that time, the WBC looked to have a new titleholder, but with planned fights falling through, the governing body also created an interim title while a new world champion would be crowned. Inoue won the interim belt late last year in Japan with a win over Petch Sor Chitpattana while Oubaali won the WBC title this past January with a win over Rau’shee Warren. Oubaali would go on to successfully defend his title on that July 6 show in Kazakhstan with a stoppage win over Arthur Villanueva.

Meanwhile, Nery had been on a comeback journey to return to title contention and has won three straight fights since being stripped of his title. Nery will fight on the pay-per-view undercard of the July 20 PBC show from Las Vegas where he will take on former bantamweight champion Juan Carlos Payano.