The bad news: Subriel Matias won’t be fighting Jeremias Ponce for the vacant IBF super lightweight title on the October 15th Deontay Wilder vs Robert Helenius PPV, as Ponce reportedly failed to acquire a visa within a reasonable time frame.
The…other news: the four-fight card will see undefeated Frank Sanchez take on Carlos Negron in a rescheduled heavyweight clash.
Sanchez (20-0, 13 KO) was supposed to fight Negron (25-3, 20 KO) last New Year’s Day, but settled for cruising past a record-breakingly passive Christian Hammer when Negron came down with COVID. “The Cuban Flash’s” previous victory was a career-best domination of Efe Ajagba and he currently sits in two sanctioning bodies’ top fives, so one would think that they’d move past the Negron matchup and get him an actual meaningful opponent.
Instead, we get to sit through a broadcast where they’ll rave about how Negron was an Olympian and gloss over the fact that he got pulverized in 66 seconds by Brian Howard, whom Sanchez subsequently dropped thrice in four rounds.
The rest of the broadcast includes Caleb Plant vs Anthony Dirrell and Gary Antonio Russell’s rematch with Emmanuel Rodriguez.