Kevin Lerena surrendered his World Boxing Council (WBC) bridgerweight crown to Ryad Merhy on points in Belgium early on Sunday morning, failing to subdue his busier opponent.
The three judges scored it 116-112, 117-111 and 115-113 to give Merhy revenge for his points loss to Lerena at Emperors Palace three years ago.
Merhy’s record improved to 36 wins and three losses, while Lerena dropped to 31-5.
In May 2023 Lerena beat Merhy by similar scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 118-110, but he never really got going in the return in Charleroi on Saturday.
It was the Ivory Coast-born Belgian who adapted better for the rematch, being more active throughout as he landed more punches and moved well.
Lerena started out boxing from behind his jab, but it was Merhy who was more fluent with both hands in the early rounds.
In the third round he stunned the southpaw champion with a right, but Lerena retaliated quickly with punches of his own to show he wasn’t hurt.
Lerena kept advancing, and Merhy looked comfortable countering, while both men increasingly threw big punches that missed, signalling their desire to end the fight early.
In the sixth Lerena missed two big punches that left him off-balance, and though he did land with a straight left, Merhy kept scoring with his combinations.
By the seventh, Lerena, his right eye marked, started holding in response to his opponent’s body attacks.
Lerena started picking up the pace in the 10th round, and he had some good moments in the 11th as well, though he again held Merhy after taking a few punches.
Lerena could only fight in spurts by this point and didn’t have the energy reserves to allow him to try to look for the knockout in the final round, eventually holding the Belgian.
To his credit, Lerena took some decent shots to the head and never looked like going down.
South Africa has just one WBC champion again, minimumweight titleholder Siyakholwa Kuse, who was crowned two weeks ago.