Subriel Ahmed Matías vs. Jeremías Nicolás Ponce & Jamal Ahammad James vs. Alberto Palmetta RBR

Rolly is about to scoop up that WBA imo, I think that would be a great fight as well.

 

No doubt about it. He is fluid with his punches and that double hook is dangerous. Plus his chin is steller.

 

Those were WARS!!

 

Good fight card. Been an excellent month for boxing in general.

 

The Dadashev thing must fact into the decision making.

 

In like a lion and out like a lamb. That was a weak stoppage in my opinion. You stop fights like that when kids is fighting. When two grown men is fighting for a title then a little pain and a knockdown shouldn't end it.

 

If it were the official stopping it, I might agree with you. But the corner should know their charge well enough to know if he's had enough. Matias had taken over, Ponce was starting to fall apart, and things were only going to get worse from there. And given the lack of protest from Ponce, I think he understood that as well as they did.

 

I hear what you saying but if his corner quits at the first sign of trouble then he didn't have no business in there in the first place. In the post fight interview he was beating his chest and saying nothing was wrong and he wanted to continue. Then if that was the case, why didn't he. That is not the heart of a champion. When you having trouble one way then you change the game. Start boxing but don't quit unless there is no other option. In like a lion and out like a lamb. Subriel took just as much punishment as he did in that first round. He didn't quit.

 

Matias is a bad dude

 

Just managed to catch a delayed replay of this without having the result spoiled!

Awesome scrap while it lasted, and pretty much went as I expected, although Matias better quality underrated accuracy paid to Ponce earlier than I expected, whith the corner stopping it after the 5th - at that point I think it was clear to see that whilst Ponce couldn't hurt Matias, Matias could and was starting to break Ponce down, and his legs were gone at the end of 5 - so maybe a bit premature, but probably saved Ponce from a bigger KO and more damage, as this was a gruelling affair that can shorten a fighters career!

Here's my RBR take, fairly fresh

Round 1: Ponce comes out like a bat out of hell, throwing a piston jab, and digging in some heavy body shots. Matias seems to absorb most of these without really looking too affected at any point but a clear Ponce round, and a frenetic pace has been established. 10-9 Ponce

Round 2: Ponce starts in a similar fashion to the first round, but - maybe inadvisedly - starting to look to work inside more than working his jab. My guess is Ponce is looking to invest in the body, and he is managing to work in some decent work there, but Matias seems to be absorbing these really well. Matias starting to let his hands go more, with some sweet short counter-hooks, and more compact better accuracy than the more wild work from Ponce. However this is a hard round to score as Ponce is still working well and having his own scoring shots, but I favour the cleaner, sneakier work by Matias that clearly seems to be affecting Ponce more than the other way round, with Subriel always looking calm and controlled. 10-9 Matias (v close)

Round 3: Again Ponce seems to determined to work in close, negating his reach and jab strengths. IMO this is a clearer round to Matias, who works equally well off the back foot, scoring some great counter hooks and uppercuts, one check left hook I think really seemed to wobble Ponce for a second or too. Ponce had some success of his own, with some decent bodywork again, but this was a clearer Matias round, who seems to be warming to the task and lettings his hands go more. A nice flurry from Matias leads to an exchange after the bell! 10-9 Matias

Round 4: Matias seeming content to let Ponce come inside, where his short, compact & accurate shots are both more clearly scoring & more clearly effective. Some of the snap seems to have gone out of Ponce shots, with them being markedly more wild, and he is having less success now - and has almost entirely abandoned his jab. Matias closed this round out well, with a flurry ending in a sweet left hook snapping the head of Ponce back, probably the best shot of the fight so far! 10-9 Matias

Round 5: Both fighters working hard at this great pace, but Matias now making Ponce miss a lot more, and seems in control even when he is on the ropes. Ponce lands a decent uppercut towards the middle of the fight, but Matias manages to spin out to the centre of the ring and fires back with a vicious uppercut of his own that lands flush - Ponce takes this really well, but backs up. Both guys exchanging solid leather in the corner, but Matias catches Ponce with that short counter left hook that has worked so well for him, and Ponce legs seem to have gone - Matias tries to follow up, but although nothing seems to land clean, Ponce goes down! He manages to get up quickly, but he looks on very shaky legs, and holds out till the bell. 10-8 Matias

Stopped on recommendation of the corner!!!

I've been high on Matias for a while, but he really impressed me in this fight, although he doesn't have elite skills, Ponce is a handful, with high workrate, heavy jab and great bodywork, and Matias absorbed these shots very impressively in the 1st round, and then went to work. Ponce was always competitive and dangerous, but he never seemed to hurt Matias, who always looked relaxed, composed and in control; which is not easy to do with someone like Ponce setting that initial tempo.

Matias will be a really hard night's work for anyone @140, even Prograis & Taylor for sure.

Man, Prograis vs Matias? That would be an absolute doozy!

 

Spot on! Matias seems to have that similar ability to Beterbiev to generate really heavy hurtful shots from a very short distance, making these sneaky, accurate & clean counter hooks and uppercuts hugely effective in wearing down his opponents