Kevin Lerena will defend his WBC bridgerweight title in a rematch with his top contender.
Lerena will face Ryad Merhy on May 30 at the Dôme in Charleroi, Belgium, which is Merhy’s home country.
Lerena and Merhy first fought in May 2023, five months after Lerena’s third-round stoppage loss at heavyweight to Daniel Dubois. That bout took place in Lerena’s home of South Africa. Lerena won a unanimous decision.
After that, Lerena picked up the interim WBC bridgerweight title in November 2023 with a unanimous decision over Senad Gashi. He then journeyed up to heavyweight again, taking a close loss to Justis Huni in March 2024. Lerena was upgraded to the full titleholder in October 2024, when Lawrence Okolie vacated the belt and moved up to heavyweight.
Lerena returned to 224lbs to make his first defense, steamrolling the 11-7 Serhiy Radchenko in three rounds last May. The allure of heavyweight’s prestige and paydays then came calling again, but Lerena lost a wide decision to Okolie in July. The 33-year-old is 31-4 (15 KOs).
Like Lerena, Merhy spent the first stages of his career at cruiserweight, including an 11th-round technical knockout loss to Arsen Goulamirian in 2018. Goulamirian would go on to capture a WBA world title at 200lbs. Merhy, meanwhile, briefly held the WBA’s secondary belt in the division before moving up in weight.
After the loss to Lerena in May 2023, Merhy edged heavyweight Tony Yoka by split decision seven months later. That was followed by a desultory decision loss to Jared Anderson in April 2024. Merhy has picked up three victories since, moving the 33-year-old to 35-3 (29 KOs).
Two of those wins were above the bridgerweight limit; none came against notable opposition. Nevertheless, the WBC moved him up from No. 2 to No. 1 at bridgerweight in December.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
