Sam Liera on BYB 14 win “I’d say it was the fight of the year”

Sam Liera bested Lowrant-T Nelson for the interim super middleweight belt at BYB 14: Carolina Brawl on December 9th.

Liera appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts and discussed several subjects in this recent conversation. Excerpts from our chat are below.

Sam Liera

Capturing gold in the sport of bare-knuckle boxing under the BYB Extreme banner

“It feels great like winning the belt, the interim belt for BYB. I really appreciate it, you know, I worked really hard. I was happy afterward but I’ll feel even happier when I actually beat the actual champion. Because he’s the one that has it and you’re not the champion until you actually beat the champion… I beat the actual champion for the actual belt.”

Thoughts on the lineal champion in the division, Jose Fernandez, and a possible timeline for their title unification fight

“Honestly, I don’t know. I talked to (Jose) Fernandez. We talk here and there. He’s a really nice guy, respectful guy. Right now I just tell him to, you know, just heal up. I don’t think he’s going to be ready to fight until maybe like late next year I’m thinking. Not sure, in my opinion. He doesn’t say much. Just says like my shoulder, I’m just doing therapy. I tell him…. Get better, I want you a hundred percent. Whenever you’re ready, healed up, let’s have some fun.”

BYB 14: Carolina Brawl

Liera continued, “He’s been in it for a while. I don’t even know, I think he started before me maybe. I’m not really quite sure. I really don’t pay attention too much. They just say ok are you going to fight this guy? Ok, I’ll go fight that guy. That’s it. I think he might have started before me, I’m not really quite sure. But like I said, they just tell me who to fight and I say ok, that’s it.”

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This Nelson bout being regarded by many as a fight-of-the-year caliber bout and his feelings on that

“It’s good I’ve got people saying oh, it was a fight of the year. I mean it was fight of the year I mean because my thing is I don’t like to stand there and like get hit in the face. I like to move around. I’d say it was the fight of the year because afterward I just stood there. I’m like you know what I’m just going to swing like crazy, I don’t even care.”

“It just turned into a brawl instead of a technical fight. To me, it was more of a brawl afterward. I think that’s why it was like fight of the year because I just stood right there, he stood right there, we started swinging until somebody dropped I guess.”

Dylan Bowker

I've been enamored with combat sports for as long as I can remember. I've hosted MMA talk shows Lights Out and Pure Fight Radio with featured guests like Jens Pulver, Roy Nelson, Miesha Tate, Mark Coleman, and more. I've been an MMA broadcaster for XFFC as well as BTC and have done play by play commentary on live pay per view on GFL as well as FITE TV. I've provided written, audio, and video content covering some of the biggest MMA promotions like Rumble in the Cage, Unified MMA, and King of the Cage. I've worked as a sports entertainment personality for over five years and given play-by-play or featured promotions of KSW, ONE Championship, TKO, and Invicta FC. My work can be found in the USA Today Sports affiliate MMA Torch, Cageside Press, MMA Sucka, and Liberty Multimedia.

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