Liam Paro Stuns  Subriel Matias

By: Sean Crose

The 24-0 Liam Paro travelled from Australia to Puerto Rico to battle the popular and hard hitting 20-1 Subriel Matias. The scheduled 12 rounder was the main event of a DAZN broadcast card. At stake was Matias’ IBF junior welterweight title. The electric pro Matias crowd was undoubtedly see their man put on a show against the undefeated Paro.

The first was close if not explosive. Paro fired away in the second, while Matias remained patient behind a high guard. The third saw Paro sticking and moving on his man. Matias, however, began to throw himself. By the end of the round, both men were firing in a fast and furious fashion. Paro continued to land well in the fourth. It became evident that Matias simply wasn’t as active as he should have been, as Paro was clearly the more active of the two fighters in the ring.

By the middle of the fight, it was obvious Matias simply wasn’t find a way to land well on his slippery, high energy opponent. Sure enough, Paro proved himself able to hit, slip away, and hold in the sixth. The referee took a point away from Paro in the seventh, supposedly for holding Matias behind the head. Needless to say, the DAZN broadcasting team was not happy.

Paro had slowed a bit by the eighth, but continued to throw and land furiously. The referee, however, gave Paro a warning for holding behind the head. With that being said, Matias did solid work for himself. He then moved on to apply pressure well in the ninth. Matias was leaving more of an impact than Paro was at this point of the fight. It was evident in the tenth that Paro was running low on gas. Still, his hit, run and hold strategy was still working for him to a large degree.

Matias was able to put his punches together a bit in the eleventh, but he was certainly having a challenging night at the office. The twelfth and final round saw Paro hitting and holding while Matias still wasn’t able to dominate. Not that Matias didn’t have his moments – Paro, though, was simply too hard for him to land well against with any real regularity.

Indeed, even Matias clapped when Paro was awarded the unanimous decision win .