Matias Focused on Dalton Smith, Not Eddie Hearn’s Chatter

Subriel Matias did not take the bait.

As the noise grew louder on Thursday and Eddie Hearn leaned into the crowd talk, Matias kept his focus narrow. Dalton Smith is the opponent. Everything else is background.

Hearn, promoting Smith, questioned whether Puerto Rican support would show up at Barclays Center on Saturday night. He suggested the British contingent might outnumber Matias’ fans and make more noise. It was a familiar bit of pre fight theater, delivered with a grin and a nudge.

Matias was unmoved.

“My enemy is not Eddie Hearn,” Matias said through a translator. “My opponent is Dalton.”

The line landed harder than the joke. Matias knows Hearn. They worked together once. The relationship lasted one fight. After Matias lost his IBF title to Liam Paro, the partnership ended just as quickly as it began. There is no warmth left to mine there.

Hearn, for his part, did not retreat. He joked that he was grateful not to be a fighter after Matias warned what would happen if he were. The exchange was light on the surface, but the edges were real.

The setting itself was not supposed to look like this. Fresh Productions, led by Juan Orengo, outbid Matchroom at the purse bid and took control of the promotion. Instead of Puerto Rico, the fight landed in Brooklyn. Hearn said he would have gone anywhere. New York worked just fine.

He continued to needle Matias’ base, floating the idea that Puerto Rican fans may have drifted away. He framed Saturday as a night for justice, later clarifying that justice meant Smith leaving with the title.

Smith enters unbeaten and confident. He has never fought outside Europe. He has never dealt with this kind of pressure or this kind of opponent. Whether he brings a crowd with him is beside the point.

Matias heard the comments. He answered them directly.

“It is on my back to back you up,” he said to his supporters. “After the fight, I will have something to say.”

If the crowd tips the other way, so be it. Matias did not argue the numbers. He dismissed the premise.

“Even if that is the case,” he said, “it is not going to change the result.”

That was the only part of the conversation that mattered.