Japan Boxing Commission bans John Riel Casimero for failing to make weight

The Japan Boxing Commission has banned John Riel Casimero for coming in overweight ahead of his first-round knockout win of Saul Sanchez on Sunday (October 13).

They fought in Yokohama, Japan, and Sanchez was beaten after 2:41 of the first round.

As a consequence, Casimero has been banned for a year by the JBC for his failure to make the 122lbs weight limit ahead of the 10-round bout.

Casimero had said after the contest that he hoped the victory would unlock big fights in 2025 at junior featherweight, even calling out Naoya Inoue.

The 35-year-old from the Philippines is 34-4-1 (23 KOs), and he came in at 123 1/4lbs in his final efforts to make 122lbs and the Japan Boxing Commission takes a dim view of fighters failing to make weight.

Mexican Luis Nery was persona non grata after missing weight but still stopping Shinsuke Yamanaka in Tokyo in 2018, but Japan eventually had him back for Inoue to – in essence – punish him, earlier this year.

Inoue stopped Nery in the sixth-round in May.