Daniel Matellon: I have always been underestimated

In a boxing atmosphere by which being a Cuban fighter with an illustrious newbie profession is synonymous with a extremely technical, nearly boring fashion not appropriate for American TV, Daniel Matellon desires you to know one factor.

You’re proper.

Or possibly that’s how he prefers to be seen, no less than till he’s given the chance to shock you and to supply proof of the other.

He can have such a possibility this coming Saturday, June 26, when he’ll face Mexico’s José Argumedo (24-4-1, 15 KOs) at Enviornment Alcalde in Guadalajara, Mexico. The cardboard, headlined by the Julio César Martinez-Joel Cordova WBC flyweight title struggle, will probably be co-promoted by Matchroom Boxing, Canelo Promotions and Clase y Talento, and broadcast by DAZN.

And no, Matellon will not be the favourite and he has no downside telling you extra about it.

“I’ve at all times been underestimated and that is one thing that has at all times motivated me,” mentioned Matellon, in a cellphone interview. “I at all times, at all times really feel motivated about this. I’ll proceed being constructive though everybody underestimates me. They at all times assume I’m the underdog or I’ve much less to supply than my opponent and that is one thing that conjures up me to display what I’m able to, to display all of the issues I’m able to doing simply to get the win. In all my fights, I’ve felt the identical manner.”

Matellon (11-0-2, 6 KOs) might not have a variety of fights in his skilled document up to now however the 33-year outdated native of Havana is a veteran of some hundred newbie fights as a part of the identical era that produced fighters like Guillermo Rigondeaux and Yordenis Ugas amongst others. Lots of them have grow to be headliners as professionals however others nonetheless endure from the stigma of getting developed their ability units across the concept of boxing as a scoring sport, removed from the much less refined tenets {of professional} boxing.

In a manner, Matellon believes the hype surrounding Cuban fighters with prolonged newbie careers is counter-productive however he has labored exhausting over the last 5 years to separate himself from that crowd after he moved to Panama to coach and spar with Chemito Moreno, Liborio Solís and Yonfrez Parejo, growing the earliest levels of his professional profession in a rustic with an extended custom of robust brawlers within the ring.

“It has been a studying expertise for me, all these 5 years,” mentioned Matellon. “I’ve tailored properly to a variety of issues, particularly to throwing more durable punches as a result of, within the professionals, you have to punch more durable and sit in your punches much more. I had an extended profession as an newbie and, because of that profession, I’ve been capable of adapt properly to skilled boxing and it has been a supply of satisfaction for me to symbolize Cuba within the newbie ranks. For me, it has made all of the distinction to have all that newbie expertise.”

Matellon talked about Yunier Dorticós and Oscar De La Hoya as his two function fashions rising up as a child in Havana being educated by his father and uncle, each boxers themselves.

There have been, after all, a couple of bumps alongside the street. Towards Camilo Mendoza in 2018, Matellon was accused of foul play however even that state of affairs was taken as a part of his studying course of.

“Towards Mendoza, I didn’t actually hit him with the pinnacle. He took a dive,” mentioned Matellon. “If I had hit him with the pinnacle, he would have been injured or each of us would have. That headbutt they’re speaking about was not such. It was a punch. He wished to make it seem like an intentional headbutt to attempt to win the struggle [by disqualification] but it surely wasn’t like that. It was a punch. It was so exhausting that he thought it was a headbutt after which he fell to the canvas. And no, there will probably be no rematch.”

Matellon’s unwillingness to look again is comprehensible, given his age and the objectives he nonetheless feels he wants to perform. He already misplaced loads of time when he was suspended from the nationwide staff and later expelled underneath suspicions that he was planning to defect (which he lastly did in 2016) and he’s solely trying ahead now. And towards Argumedo, he can have his work lower out for him – and in his foe’s homeland as well.

“I do know my opponent properly,” mentioned Matellon about Argumedo, a former IBF strawweight titlist who made three profitable defenses of his belt earlier than surrendering to present 108-pound WBA beltholder Hiroto Kyoguchi. “I’ve been watching him for some time now towards a number of opponents and my preparation has been implausible for this struggle. We all know that he was an IBF champ at 105 and now he moved as much as 108 and we’re prepared for him.”

Hiroto Kyoguchi (left) vs. Jose Argumedo. Photograph credit score: Naoki Fukuda

Managed by George Sarantopoulos´ Sparta Promotions, in Panama, Matellon has fought nearly completely in that nation, aside from a visit to Japan, the place he defeated Masamichi Yabuki, on the legendary Korakuen Corridor, again in September 2018. This journey to Mexico will solely be his second professional bout exterior his adopted nation however he hopes it received’t be his final.

“I noticed that struggle, the place he defeated the unbeaten Venezuelan,” mentioned Matellon, in reference to the upset scored by Mexico’s Esteban Bermudez in his struggle towards beforehand unbeaten Carlos Cañizales, “and now we’re negotiating with [Bermudez] and with Kyoguchi, who’s the ‘tremendous champion’ and there are prospects that we will bounce within the combine however now it seems they are going to be combating one another. I simply proceed my path, step-by-step, preparing and stronger for these challenges.”

There’s a motive Bermudez and Kyoguchi are a part of a “combine” that may be higher described as a “mess,” a phrase that shortly surfaces at any time when the WBA is concerned in some form or type.

As the present “interim” titlist (a title not acknowledged by The Ring, which Matellon received in an awesome struggle towards Erick Lopez), Matellon is searching for to validate his belt and improve it to the “common” model (once more, not acknowledged by The Ring) with the winner difficult Kyoguchi for the official laurels. Nonetheless Matellon is assured that, though he doesn’t have time on his aspect, he’ll have the ability to clear these hurdles and transfer on to greater and higher challenges ahead of later.

“The very first thing I wish to do is to have my first protection of this title after which we will negotiate for different greater issues,” he mentioned. “I hope we will do all that with God’s favor. Making an attempt to get greater purses, shifting up in weight, I feel that comes with time. Little by little, I’ll get it carried out however, to start with, I have to get this win on Saturday after which I’ll see higher issues forward.”