February twenty-fifth at the Minneapolis Armory, headlining on Showtime. The vacant IBF super lightweight title will be at stake, having been vacated in August by Josh Taylor after the by then fully unified champion made a fourth defense of this belt versus Jack Catterall last February. Ponce and Matías are ranked #1 and #2 respectively by the IBF at 140lbs. The former is undefeated while the latter is coming directly off avenging his only professional loss to date. They have one common opponent, in Ponce's southpaw countryman Jonathan José "El Potro" Eniz. Ponce got off the canvas in round three for a UD victory over Eniz, while Matías stopped him in 5 a year earlier.
Stylistically probably the best matchup you can get these days. It's a mirror matchup. True 50/50 fight. I'm really looking forward to this one. FOTY contender for sure.
Ponce is solid, I picked him to upset Mueller adn then Ritson, long before anyone knew who he was, but... I did the same with Matias, when I picked him to upset Dadashev, I took notice of him around about the Daulis Prescott match. I've always been far more impressed with Matias, and without a doubt he'd have beaten Mueller senseless and actually stopped him and KO'd Ritson far quicker. Based on chin, skill set and firepower, I have a hard time seeing Matias lose this one.
This will be a great fight for sure, so excited for this match up. 140 has been getting a bit more interesting.
I frankly see it being violent and uncompetitive. Ponce is good, but has a habit of standing inert and flat-footed after throwing combos. This will spell doom. If you're going in with Browny not employing constant movement or immaculate defense otherwise, you had better have a cast iron chin or massive power comparable to Matías' own to keep his respect - or ideally both. Ponce has neither.
