IBF orders Subriel Matias to defend against Shohjahon Ergashev next

Image: IBF orders Subriel Matias to defend against Shohjahon Ergashev next
By Boxing News - 06/28/2023 - Comments

By Sean Jones: The IBF has ordered their light welterweight champion Subriel Matias to defend against the unbeaten knockout artist Shohjahon Ergashev next.

It’s a considerably tougher fight than the recently mentioned IBF-ordered clash between Matias (19-1, 19 KOs) and Sergey Lipinets.

At least with the 31-year-old Uzbek Ergashev (23-0, 20 KOs), he’s in his prime and infighting at a high level.

This will be a massive step up in class for Ergashev to go from fighting the obscure opposition he’s been feasting on for the last eight years to taking on arguably the best fighter in the 140-lb division.

The Puerto Rican native Matias is coming off a crushing fifth round knockout win over Jeremias Ponce last February in Minneapolis to capture the vacant IBF 140-lb title.

Matias was hoping to face one of the other light welterweight champions in a unification, but he’s not going to take any takers this time around. WBC champion Regis Prograis had wanted to fight Matias, but afteer the way the New Orleans fighter struggled against Danielito Zorrilla, that idea went out the window.

After the timid performance, Prograis turned in against Zorrilla, there’s no chance on earth that his promoter Eddie Hearn would throw his gunshy fighter in with a seek & destroy guy like Matias.

The retirement of Teofimo Lopez removed another option for Matias. If Teo hadn’t retired, a logical fight for him to have made would have been against Matias. It would have been a massive fight that would have created a great deal of interest from boxing fans worldwide.

It’s difficult to know how the southpaw Ergashev will do against Matias because his opposition has been poor his entire pro career.

You can see from watching Ergashev’s fights he’s got talent and good power in his left hand, but he’s faced no one of note to gauge how he’ll do against the puncher Matias.

Ergashev has a good left hand, but he doesn’t have much power in his right and doesn’t use it. It’s like a vestigial feature, like the arms of a T-Rex.

For Ergashev to beat Matias, he will need more than his left hand and the pull-back style he uses because he will be dealing with heavy pressure that he’s never seen before in the pro ranks against his lackluster opposition.

Ergashev’s last seven fights:

Angel Martinez Hernandez
Luis Veron Aekkawee Kaewmanee
Salimu Jengo
Dzmitry Miliusha
Adrian Estrella
Abdiel Ramirez
Mykal Fox

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