TOKYO – “You can say I’m the bad guy,” said a stone-faced Luis Nery, the night before he will face Naoya Inoue in the Tokyo Dome.
Nery is the villain of the piece here, banned from Japan but brought back to serve penance in front of Inoue’s adoring fans.
Having dethroned Japan’s long-reigning bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka, Nery tested positive for a banned substance. Still, Japan allowed him back for a grudge rematch with Yamanaka. But when he came in three pounds overweight, it was deemed a cardinal sin. Worse followed for Japanese fight fans when Nery dispatched Yamanaka in half the time in their return.
Now Nery is back, and he has taken this week in his stride, looking every inch the bad guy; designer clothes, thick black shades, and an all-too confident swagger. He’s loved playing the part, even if the build-up has been mostly respectful since both fighters arrived in Tokyo.
The weigh-in saw a heated staredown, but it never threatened to boil over.
“I like being called the bad guy, but I like to have fun also,” Nery explained. “I can be a bad guy outside the ring, but I have to be in the ring, too. The suspension was nothing serious. At the end of the day, the fight was going to sell no matter what. They’re never going to find a fighter that is going to fill the Tokyo Dome like I will. It doesn’t matter who Inoue fights; they’re not going to fill the Tokyo Dome without me.”
Nery is embracing his part in this week’s huge event, one that has captured the imagination of fight fans in Japan and much, much further afield.
“It feels great because there hasn’t been a show here [at the Tokyo Dome, when another substantial underdog, Buster Douglas, drilled Mike Tyson] in 34 years, and being in the main event, it’s a great feeling being here.”
Nery’s team has this week spoken of his renewed dedication. The 29-year-old southpaw is 35-1 (27 KOs), a two-time champion and he has doubled down making sure he is ready for the “Monster”.
“Pantera” admits he is seeing a lot of things differently now than did several years ago.
“I changed a lot of things. The things I changed were outside the ring,” he said. “I changed the way I eat, my discipline, my training. Everything.”
Nery’s body, neck and face lie under an increasingly thick blanket of tattoos. There is a symbol on his left cheek that represents the surname of his wife and daughter, and Nery said: “All of the tattoos are important, there’s a story behind all of them.”
And now the countdown clock is ticking and we are hours away from Nery’s big chance, perhaps his last big chance in this country, and he has looked certain of himself and his mission all week. Nery is also not buying wholly into the Inoue hype. Asked if Inoue was the best he has faced in his career, Nery admitted Inoue has “the best style.”
Then, asked about Inoue’s standing atop of lists as the best in boxing today, Nery concluded: “I don’t think he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He’s a good fighter, but he’s not the best fighter.”
