Jeremias Ponce and Subriel Matias made weight Friday for the junior welterweight title fight the 140-pound contenders have awaited for quite some time.
Argentina’s Ponce stepped on the Minnesota Office of Combative Sports’ scale at 139½ pounds for their fight Saturday night at The Armory in Minneapolis. Puerto Rico’s Matias officially weighed in at 139½ pounds.
The 12-round championship bout between Ponce (30-0, 20 KOs) and Matias (18-1, 18 KOs) will headline a “Showtime Championship Boxing” tripleheader scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET from The Armory.
Ponce, 26, and Matias, 30, will fight for the unclaimed IBF junior welterweight title that Josh Taylor gave up late last August.
Buenos Aires’ Ponce was the mandatory challenger for Taylor’s title, but the Scottish southpaw gave up his IBF belt in favor of a rematch against England’s Jack Catterall, which has since been cancelled. Ponce, who will make his debut in the United States, is ranked number one among the IBF’s 140-pound contenders and Matias is ranked second.
Caesars Sportsbook lists Matias as more than a 3-1 favorite over Ponce.
The official weights are listed below for the two bouts Showtime will televise and the three fights it’ll stream on its YouTube channel.
Showtime
9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT
Jamal James (27-2, 12 KOs), Minneapolis, 146¾ pounds vs. Alberto Palmetta (18-1, 13 KOs), Buenos Aires, Argentina, 147 pounds, 10 rounds, welterweights.
Elvis Rodriguez (13-1-1, 12 KOs), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 139¾ pounds vs. Joseph Adorno (17-1-2, 14 KOs), Allentown, Pennsylvania, 140 pounds, 10 rounds, junior welterweights.
Showtime Sports’ YouTube channel
6:45 p.m. ET; 3:45 p.m. PT
Kudratillo Abdukakhorov (18-1, 10 KOs), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 146 pounds vs. VeShawn Owens (13-3, 12 KOs), Minneapolis, 147 pounds, 10 rounds, welterweights.
Derrick Jackson (10-0, 5 KOs), Orlando, Florida, 149 pounds vs. Willie Jones (8-2, 5 KOs), Burlington, North Carolina, 147¾ pounds, 8 rounds, junior middleweights.
Mickel Spencer (2-0, 1 KO), Linden, Michigan, 139 pounds vs. Margarito Hernandez (3-4-1, 0 KOs), Wapato, Washington, 140 pounds, 4 rounds, junior welterweights.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
