IBF orders Subriel Matias vs Jeremias Ponce for interim 140 lb title

It took longer than expected, but the IBF’s four-man eliminator tournament at 140 pounds looks like it’ll finally have an ending. Jake Donovan reports that the sanctioning body has ordered its two finalists, Subriel Matias and Jeremias Ponce, to square off for the interim title.

Per Donovan, both sides had previously agreed to wait and see whether Josh Taylor would drop his titles and move to 147, which would have made this a vacant title fight. Since Taylor’s looking to stay put and face WBC mandatory challenger Jose Zepeda, here we are.

Regardless of the hardware involved, this is as terrific a matchup as ever. Both impressed mightily in their semifinal efforts; Matias (18-1, 18 KO) ran over unbeaten Batyr Jukembayev in May, while Ponce (30-0, 20 KO) did much to same to Lewis Ritson in hostile territory a month later.

Both have stayed busy in the interim, Matias by decisively avenging his lone career loss to Petros Ananyan and Ponce with a pair of gimmes in Germany.

This stacks up to anything else on the schedule in terms of pure action potential, and we’ll let you know as soon as we get something concrete.