Photos: Luis Nery Stops Azat Hovhannisyan in Eleventh of Exciting War

Pomona, California – In a WBC super bantamweight eliminator, former world champion Luis Nery (34-1, 26 KOs) went through a lot of fire to stop Azat Hovhannisyan (21-4, 17 KOs) in a war. (photos by Cris Esqueda)

Hovhannisyan was pawing with the jab, as Nery was being aggressive with his power shots. Bery was landing often to the head and body. The second round began to heat up as more of a fire fight, with Nery landing most of the accurate shots. In the third, a cut opened up around the right eye of Hovhannisyan from a punch. Nery was connecting often with a hard 1-2 on the button.

During the fourth, Hovhannisyan seemed to hurt Nery with solid punches. Nery weathered the storm and connected with a big combination at the end of the round. In the fifth, there were fireworks as the punches were flying – and Hovhannisyan was rocked as Nery unloaded with punches. Another cut opened up around the right eye Hovhannisyan.

Hovhannisyan and Nery both had moments in a tough sixth. Very big punches were exchanged during the seventh. It seemed that Nery was doing more damage. During the eight, Hovhannisyan was connecting well with his big punches and had Nery backing up for most of the round.

The ninth saw Nery looking to walk Hovhannisyan down, but he wasn’t throwing much. Hovhannisyan was doing most of the work. They traded heavy leather in the closing seconds. In the tenth, Hovhannisyan was pressing forward and landing a lot of leather, especially to the body. Nery was landing big counters, but Hovhannisyan was able to take the shots. But then out of nowhere, Nery landed a series of punches to send Hovhannisyan down and he was really hurt – but there wasn’t enough time to finish him off as Nery was pounding him.

Nery was pressing and punching as the eleventh began. Hovhannisyan was able to weather the storm and began to let his hands go on a tired Nery. But then Nery stunned him with big punches to force the referee to jump in and wave off the fight.