These are difficult days for Kerman Lejarraga, after last weekend he suffered a stunning first round TKO defeat at the hands of David Avanesyan at the Bilbao Arena in Miribilla.
It was a rematch of their first encounter from earlier this year, which Avanesyan also won by knockout.
The team behind the former European welterweight champion have revealed that their man struggled bad to make the weight limit of 147-pounds, and in order to continues his career he must make a move to the junior middleweight limit of 154.
"I know that Kerman was very tired, so it was better for the referee to stop the fight early because it could have been more serious," said the boxer's trainer, Txutxi del Valle.
"Kerman Lejarraga was very weak. On Friday it took him four hours to make the weight. And that was noticed on Saturday in the fight. Kerman was not really touched, during the moment you to yell at the referee [for stopping it so soon], but you could see that Kerman was not well. I believe that he will be European champion again, but in another divisions.
"It is a fact that his days in the welterweight division have ended. It took a lot to make the weight, too. In the coming weeks we will confirm the jump to super welterweight and nobody will take away what we know, that Kerman has been twice the European champion in the division that he now abandons."
Lejarraga had no excuses over the loss.
"In the end, in this sport, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and in this case I had to lose and what are you going to do," accepted Lejarraga.
"Surely after this fight we will move on to another division, to super welterweight, so we don't have to suffer so much going up and down in weight, so we have no choice but to move forward with that direction."
