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Subriel MatÃas will have to wait a little longer for his first shot at a major title.
An ordered vacant IBF junior welterweight title fight between MatÃas of Puerto Rico and JeremÃas Ponce of Argentina is now on hold. The fight was scheduled for October 15, but has now been postponed due to Ponce reportedly being unable to obtain a visa in time to meet the fight date.
“I want to inform you that I will not be fighting on October 15 due to visa problems (with Ponce),” MatÃas revealed on Saturday morning through social networks. “Now I will continue training; It’s out of my hands.”
Matias-Ponce’s placement on the October 15 Fox Sports Pay-Per-View undercard, headlined by former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (42-2-1, 41KOs) and resurgent contender Robert Helenius (31-3, 20KOs) was never announced or confirmed by Premier Boxing Champions (PBC).
The vacant title fight was ordered by the IBF on August 24, shortly after lineal champion Josh Taylor (19-0, 13KOs) relinquished the title rather than proceed with a mandatory title defense against Ponce (30- 0, 20KOs). The recent round of talks marked at least the third time the two sides had been instructed to reach an agreement for an IBF-sanctioned fight, once for each of them for a possible final eliminator, an interim title fight and now for full title, once Ponce can resolve his reported visa issues.
Ponce and Matias (18-1, 18KOs) advanced to the top two positions in the IBF junior welterweight rankings following knockout victories in separate semifinal eliminators late last spring. MatÃas advanced to the number two position after knocking out Batyrzhan Jukembayev in the eighth round on May 29 in Carson, California. Ponce did the same thing two weeks later with a 10th-round knockout of Lewis Ritson last June 12 on the road in Newcastle, England.
The belief at the time was that a final eliminator would follow, although both teams were able to come to terms with each other and with the blessing of the IBF to wait out Taylor’s then-scheduled mandatory WBO with Jack Catterall of England. Scotsman Taylor had just completely unified the division at the time, defending his WBA/IBF titles while winning the WBC/WBO belts in a twelve-round unanimous decision over Jose Ramirez in their May 22 undisputed clash between the undefeated champions and unified.
Taylor suffered a training camp injury that delayed his fight with Catterall from last December 18 to last February 26, fueling speculation that he would eventually vacate the IBF title. Taylor barely escaped with his undefeated record and championship reign intact, surviving an eighth-round knockdown to claim a disputed split decision victory over Catterall.
The result of the fight sparked outrage and demand for an immediate rematch. To Taylor’s credit, he always agreed to face Catterall a second time before defending his title against anyone else in the division. That decision has led him to have to relinquish the WBA, WBC and IBF belts, in that order.
Matias has fought just once during that time, scoring a ninth-round knockout of Petros Ananyan on Jan. 22 in Atlantic City. The win was significant in avenging the only loss of his career when he dropped a ten-round decision in their February 2020 clash in Las Vegas, having entered a current three-fight win streak.
Ponce has fought and won twice since becoming the IBF’s number one contender at junior welterweight, earning a pair of early knockout wins in Hamburg, Germany.
The two were previously instructed to enter talks for an approved interim title fight, which dragged on for months. A deal was believed to have been reached, but he simply waited for a date, only the IBF never received any such paperwork and thus moved forward by ordering a mandatory Taylor-Ponce title fight in July. Those talks went nowhere, with a purse offer scheduled for August 23 but canceled a day earlier, fueling speculation that Taylor would vacate the title.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
