“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” goes the common cliche.

Subriel Matias’ sensational 140lbs summit with Alberto Puello is the latest reminder to not put too much faith in platitudes. Matias, 23-2 (22 KOs), won a controversial majority decision by scores of 114-114 and 115-113 (twice) Saturday. Matias went the distance for the first time in a victory, but won’t care about the method, having acquired Puello’s WBC title. The former titlist fell to 24-1 (10 KOs).

The fight was included on the undercard of the “Ring III” event headlined by co-main events Edgar Berlanga-Hamzah Sheeraz and Shakur Stevenson-William Zepeda. Matias and Puello traded fists in Louis Armstrong Stadium, a tennis stadium at the site of the U.S. Open. That fact drew a comparison between tennis and boxing from broadcaster Jim Lampley early on the stream. Although both are individual sports, the one obvious difference is that only boxing requires its participants to take punches. Those who hold the traditions and etiquette of tennis dear wouldn’t have been able to stomach the bloody spectacle Matias and Puello produced.

Matías came out in typical form, relentlessly applying forward pressure and forcing Puello into retreat. But Puello landed the more effective shots in the opening round, pasting Matias with stiff lefts around and through the guard. Puello added two sharp uppercuts to his scoring blows late in the round. 

Matias focused his attack on the body and snuck in a couple right uppercuts of his own in the second round. 

The third saw both fighters land, and land hard, but the nature of the fight began to favor Matias; already he was beginning to roll downhill, to crowd Puello into the outer reaches of the ring. Puello was successful with his counters but too easy to find. Matias’ iron chin didn’t give way to the best of Puello’s offense, enabling him to advance and throw with impunity.

Puello slowed against the Matias onslaught in the middle rounds – and not for lack of toughness. Late in the fifth, he took a low blow square in the groin without flinching. Still, he was reduced to clinching and pushing Matias into the center of the ring as much as trying to land a counter. When he did throw, his shots flew wider and slower than they had in the opening rounds.

The prospect of fighting Matias is nightmarish. He has never been stopped – it looks as if he could take a punch from a heavyweight and continue plodding forward given how little he respects his opponents’ offense. And he has never won by anything but stoppage. An opponent must last the distance with him to win, requiring 36 minutes of effective offense – but also 36 minutes of willpower. They cannot fall asleep for a moment, cannot get discouraged when they have hit him with their best punch and he responds not by blinking or wobbling but only by continuing to rain blows to their body.

Puello staggered Matias slightly with a hard left at the end of Round 7, a rare moment of success to that point. But Puello used that moment to change the fight.  

In the eighth and ninth, he found that elusive second wind boxers can only rarely produce against elite opponents: Oleksandr Usyk in his first fight against Tyson Fury, Dmitry Bivol in the eighth round of the rematch with Artur Beterbiev. And this was equally unexpected and inspiring. Puello’s shots regained their snap and found their target. Before long, Matias looked like the fighter without answers.

In the 10th round, it grew clear that Puello had fatigued first, but Matias fatigued more significantly. His shots lost a bit of steam, his feet slowed marginally and Puello capitalized on the slivers of extra breathing room. 

Puello landed a sudden right uppercut in the 11th that hurt Matias – but such is Matias’ style and ceaseless brand of offense that he hesitated for only a second before continuing to march forward. Puello’s shots were starting to do enough damage to slow Matias’ onslaught, however, whereas Matias threw with abandon in the first half of the fight.

In the 12th, Matias threw technique out the window, walking towards Puello as if he were late for a bus rather than in a professional boxing ring. His precision fell by the wayside, allowing Puello to continue landing sharp counters and to march him to ring’s center in the clinch.

Though Puello finished stronger, Matias’ surge in the early and middle rounds proved enough to seal a narrow victory. Many will disagree with the result, but for all his heart and endurance, Puello risked defeat by starting his surge late in the fight, and by losing several rounds in succession early on.

After the fight, Ring Magazine owner and boxing financier Turki Alalshikh brought 140lbs prospect Dalton Smith into the ring, announcing him as Matias’ next opponent.

After Matias’ comfortable 2024 defeat and loss of his IBF title to Liam Paro, the best part of his career seemed over. Now, at 33 years old, he is a titleholder again and a likely participant in future main events. One cliche might not have proven true tonight, but for Matias, another did: Every fight is a new opportunity.

Owen Lewis is a freelance writer with bylines at Defector Media, The Guardian and The Second Serve. He is also a writer and editor at BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, books, travel and anything else that satisfies his meager attention span. He is on Bluesky and can be contacted at owentennis11@gmail.com.