Ponce travels to face Ritson in Newcastle
This Saturday, June 12, at the Vertu Motors Arena in New Castle, England, Argentine Jeremías Ponce will face a great challenge. He will face the local idol, Lewis Ritson, in an International Boxing Federation (IBF) qualifying fight in the super lightweight division.
The current unified champion is Scotland’s Josh Taylor, after defeating Jose Ramirez. Ritson, who has won 21 fights with 12 knockouts and one loss, is called “Sandman” and is the idol of his homeland. A Newcastle fan, he draws crowds and offers them an open, hard-hitting style of fighting.
Ponce, meanwhile, won the IBO (International Boxing Organization) championship in Berlin against Rico Muller and will step into the ring with an undefeated campaign in 27 fights, all of them wins, 17 of them before the limit.
Jeremías, a native of Mármol, province of Buenos Aires, is the pupil of Alberto Zacarías, a surname that is a trademark in Argentine boxing. His father, Don Santos, took to the world championship two fighters he trained from the first minute at the gym: Sergio Victor Palma (WBA super bantamweight champion) and Juan Martin Coggi (three-time WBA super lightweight champion). Although Alberto could not travel for health reasons, his son Patricio, who has been working in boxing for more than fifteen years, will be in charge of Ponce.
Against Muller he made a great fight and ended up winning by points in Berlin, on September 14, 2019, a fight that Espn Knock Out broadcast. Back on the road, Ponce knows he faces an opponent who can be sloppy, but tough and will have all the local support.
In fact, Ritson was favored when he faced Mexican Miguel “Títere” Vázquez for the Inter Continental title on October 17, 2020. One jury saw the Mexican as the winner 116-113, while the other two favored “Sandman.” The curious thing was that while one gave him only 2 points, 115-113, the other gave him 6 points, 117-111, which generated an avalanche of criticism.
The officials for Saturday have already been appointed. The referee will be Steve Gray. The jurors, the English Howard Foster, the German Holger Weimann and the Italian Matteo Montella, proposed by the German company Universum, which represents the Argentine boxer.
Both were in the category, which has a limit of 63.500 kilos. The winner of this fight will have to face the Puerto Rican Subriel Matias, who defeated Batyrzhan Jukembayeb last May 23, when his corner decided to withdraw him from the ring. Subriel has 18 fights, 17 of which he won, all before the limit and with only one loss. He is a very tough and dangerous opponent because of his tremendous punch. For this reason, he is ranked second in the International Federation ranking.
But that will come later, when -perhaps- the winner of Ponce-Ritson will face Matias for the IBF crown, as many think that Josh Taylor is about to vacate that crown.
Now the issue is what happens this Saturday in a fight that will force Ponce to have all the “lights on”, as they said, and be able to put enough pressure on an aggressive, but also sloppy fighter, as it was said, who will be fighting at home. A pressure also for Ritson, as he will have to pass the test against those who already see him as a winner.
