June tenth in Buenos Aires. Headlining a TyC Sports card, this was originally planned for March 24th in the Bahamas and is now part of a 2 night annual "KO to Drugs" event hosted by the WBA. Hard to say for whom this is considered "home turf". Cañizales is from Venezuela, technically part of the same mainland but all the way on the other side of the South American continent from Argentina. His hometown of Caracas is about five thousand kilometers away as the crow flies, although Matellón's current residence and city of birth (Panama City and Havana, in Central and North America respectively) are in the same ballpark. Both are former WBA light flyweight champions...sort of. Neither has ever worn the "super" championship, which many observers now consider the only piece of the WBA pie that can lay claim to being a valid world title. Cañizales was the "regular" champ from 2018 until 2021, when Esteban "Gladiador de Nezahualcóyotl" Bermúdez Salas stopped him in his only career loss to date. Matellón was the "interim" champ for the first half of the pandemic, and remains undefeated with his only blemishes a pair of draws within his first few months as a pro. There is no explicit prize on the line in this one (despite being, annoyingly, an arbitrary 12-rounder) but CCC and El Verdugo (The Hangman) are ranked #9 and #7 in the division by Ring Magazine, respectively. So this should be a springboard to an eliminator for the victor.
It's a true pick 'em. Bookmakers have it appropriately close, with Cañizales installed as the very slight favorite at -150 and Matellón priced at +130. That seems about right. Matellón doesn't really fight anything like Bermúdez - whom Cañizales was handling pretty easily until getting clobbered with a Siriesque BSOHR he never anticipated - but is dangerous in his own way. Either men could be stopped or we could get 12 rounds of fiery exchanges that both survive. In both eventualities, slight edge to CCC.
Night 2 of "KO Las Drogas" on Saturday, btw, features a women's super bantam world title bout and Ivan Fedorovich Dychko vs. Ariel Esteban Bracamonte in a heavyweight rumble. Kind of weird they put the best fight (by far) on Night 1.
