Kevin Lerena W12 Ryad Merhy... South Africa's Kevin Lerena (29-2) won a WBC bridgerweight eliminator against Belgium's Ryad Merhy on Saturday night at Emperor's Palace in Lerena's home country. The judges scored the fight 118-110, 115-113 and 116-112 in favor of Lerena, who was dropping down from heavyweight to the WBC's relatively new 224-pound classification. In December, Lerena scored three knockdowns against heavyweight Daniel Dubois but wound up getting stopped. With this win, Lerena, also a former IBO cruiserweight champion, earned the right to challenge Luasz Rozanski for the WBC bridgerweight world title. Merhy, a former WBA regular cruiserweight title holder, is now 31-2 and has accomplished little over the last five years.