Subriel Matias (18-1, 18 KOs) faces undefeated Jeremias Ponce (30-0, 20 KOs) for the vacant IBF 140-pound World Championship in the super lightweight clash on Saturday, February 25 live on Showtime.
The 30-year-old Matias possesses an attractive seek-and-destroy approach that makes life difficult for his rivals. All 18 of his victories came by way of knockouts, with his last six coming in the fifth round or later. The only defeat in his professional career was a unanimous 10-round decision loss to Petros Ananyan in 2020, which was later avenged. After his setback, Matias, a boxer from Farjado, Puerto Rico, faced two opponents who had never lost, and he stopped both Malik Hawkins and Batyrzhan Jukembayev. He defeated Ananyan in the rematch by ninth-round TKO, patiently wearing him down and depleting him before dropping him and putting an end to the fight.
Ponce, 26, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, aspires to join a long line of renowned Argentine boxers who have come before him. With a spectacular 10th-round TKO victory over Lewis Ritson in June 2021, he put himself in a position to fight for the IBF title. In preparation for the title fight, he stopped Michel Marcano via second-round KO in November 2021 before most recently scoring a TKO victory over Achiko Odikadze in April 2022.
Main card:
▪️Subriel Matias vs. Jeremias Ponce, 12 rounds, for vacant IBF super lightweight title ▪️Jamal James vs. Alberto Palmetta, 10 rounds, welterweight ▪️Elvis Rodriguez vs. Joseph Adorno, 10 rounds, super lightweight
Undercard:
▪️Kudratillo Abdukakhorov vs. Ve Shawn Owens, 10 rounds, welterweight ▪️Kel Spencer vs. Margarito Hernandez, 4 rounds, welterweight ▪️Derrick Jackson vs. Willie Jones, 4 rounds, welterweight
Prelims:
▪️Jonathan Marcano vs. Eduardo Diogo, 6 rounds, bantamweight ▪️Breeon Carothers vs. Kevin Schmidt, 4 rounds, lightweight
