Luis Nery-John Riel Casimero, David Jimenez-Ayumu Sano set for April
By David Greisman
The headline bouts for two of the three consecutive nights of boxing in Kyrgyzstan in April have been announced.
The set of shows will take place from April 17-19 at the Gazprom Sports Complex in the country’s capital of Bishkek, according to promoter 3150Fight, which is run by Koki Kameda, a retired former titleholder from Japan.
On April 18, Luis Nery and John Riel Casimero will face each other. On April 19, David Jimenez will defend his secondary junior bantamweight belt against Ayumu Sano.
The main event for April 17 has not yet been announced.
Nery, 37-2 (28 KOs), is a former two-division titleholder who reigned at bantamweight and junior featherweight. The 31-year-old from Tijuana, Mexico, has fought twice since his May 2024 loss to undisputed 122lbs champion Naoya Inoue. That bout saw Nery drop Inoue in the first round, get floored himself in the second and ultimately succumb to the stoppage in the sixth.
Both of Nery’s wins came in 2025: a seventh-round TKO of the 15-3-2 Kyonosuke Kameda and a wide technical decision over the 17-2 Sathaporn Saart. Those victories took place within the featherweight limit. Nery is ranked No. 5 at 126lbs by both the WBA and WBC, and 10th by the IBF. The WBO has Nery slotted No. 4 at 122lbs. This fight with Casimero will take place at junior featherweight.
Casimero, 35-5-1 (24 KOs), held world titles at 108, 112 and 118lbs. The 37-year-old from the Philippines then competed at junior featherweight until October 2024, when he came in overweight and made short work of the 21-3 Saul Sanchez.
That infraction on the scale led to Casimero being suspended for a year. When he returned last October, he suffered a surprising decision loss to the aforementioned Kyonosuke Kameda in a bout in which both men weighed in at 127.5lbs. Casimero rebounded in December, knocking out the 11-5-2 Tom Mizokoshi in the fifth round of a featherweight fight. If Casimero can still make junior featherweight, it will be the first time doing so since late 2023. Casimero is not presently ranked by any of the sanctioning bodies.
Jimenez, 18-1 (12 KOs), has been the WBA’s interim junior bantamweight titleholder for nearly two years now. The 33-year-old from Costa Rica picked up the belt with a unanimous decision over John “Scrappy” Ramirez in April 2024 and has since defended it by outpointing the 32-6-1 Keyvin Lara in March 2025 and knocking out the 15-5 Kenbun Torres in the 11th round last July.
The primary WBA belt at 115lbs belongs to Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, who also has the WBC and WBO titles and is the lineal and Ring Magazine champion.
Sano, 11-0-1 (5 KOs), is a 23-year-old from Japan who is ranked 11th at junior bantamweight by the WBA. He is coming off a wide decision victory over the 11-0 Reymart Tagacanao in October.
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.
