LAS VEGAS – Subriel Matias has scars you can see. In a crowded ball room Thursday, he showed them to a couple of reporters. There’s one on his butt. There’s one on the inside of his right thigh. They’re from gunshots. Then, there’s another on the inside of his left thigh, one from an AK-47.
Matias has survived from what you can see.
He’s also survived from what you can’t see. He’s a hard man. Death has been a way of life for Matias, at home in Puerto Rico and in the ring. Maxim Dadashev died after Matias fought him, leaving him with a brain injury that killed him three days after the fight last July 19 in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
But Matias (15-0, 15 KOs) moves on, preparing to fight Petros Ananyan on the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury card Saturday night at the MGM Grand.
“You are talking to a dead man who God has brought back to life,’’ Matias said through an interpreter.
In his life outside of the ring, Matias says he has seen those in his immediate family murdered. Then, he said as he pointed to his scars, he survived shootings in 2012 and again in 2013. In the ring, he feels safer, despite the Dadashev tragedy.
His life within the relative safety of the ropes continues against Anonyan (14-2-2, 7 KOs) of Brooklyn in a junior welterweight bout.
For Matias, who stopped Jonathan Eniz in five rounds Nov. 30 in Puerto Rico, it’s his second bout since Dadashev died following brain surgery.
“Something was wrong with that night,’’ Matias said of the fight with Dadashev, whose trainer Buddy McGirt stopped the bout after the 11th round. “I don’t know if it was the weight. I heard that really might have had a lot to with what happened in the fight. I also heard he was sparring the week of the fight. Nobody does that.’’
Matias wonders. But he also moves forward, back into harm’s way. He has signed with Premier Boxing Champions. One day, he believes he might have a chance to fight for a 140-pound title.
“I will let my promoters decide,’’ he said.
No rush. He’ll survive.