Subriel Matías (20-1, 20 KOs) returns home to Puerto Rico to make his second title defense of his IBF light welterweight belt against #6 Liam Paro on DAZN on June 15th.
Social Media Favors The Challenger
Matias vs. Paro will be staged at the Coliseo Juan Aubín Cruz Abreu in Manatí. Many boxing fans on social media are picking the 27-year-old Aussie Liam Paro (24-0, 17 KOs) to win this fight, believing that he’s got the goods to defeat Matias after watching him dismantle Montana Love in nine rounds last December and Brock Jarvis in one round.
For Paro to win, he’s going to need a good chin because Matias can punch, and he’s relentless in the way he attacks his opponents. We saw that in his recent stoppage victories over Shohjahon Ergashev, Jeremias Ponce, and Petros Ananyan.
Matias recently signed a co-promotional team with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing company, and it’s believed that one of the fights that he’ll be getting as part of the new deal is a mega-clash. That remains to be seen.
Devin Haney is obviously the guy that Hearn would like to match against Matias, but he and his dad, Bill Haney, will have the final say on whether they face Subriel as part of his contract with Matchroom.
If Haney stays at 140 to try and become the undisputed champion, he’ll have to mix it up with Matias if he gets past Paro and holds onto his IBF title in his other defenses while he waits.
“I am super excited to be able to be in front of my people defending the title that we had such a hard time getting,” said Matías. “The mentality will always be the same and in front of my people I don’t even have to say it, they know me. The Pride of Maternillo.”
Subriel, 31, had hoped to lure WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez into fighting him in a unification, but he, not surprisingly, wasn’t interested. Perhaps too risky for Teofimo, who is very selective in who he fights.