Subriel Matias and Jeremias Ponce have a date and a site for their 140-pound title fight.

BoxingScene.com has learned that Matias and Ponce will square off for the vacant IBF junior welterweight title February 25 at The Armory in Minneapolis. Showtime will televise their 12-round bout as part of a tripleheader, the second of two “Showtime Championship Boxing” broadcasts in February.

Puerto Rico’s Matias (18-1, 18 KOs) and Argentina’s Ponce (30-0, 20 KOs) will fight for an IBF belt that undisputed 140-pound champion Josh Taylor relinquished August 23.

The bout between Ponce, the IBF’s number one contender, and the second-ranked Matias was supposed to be a final eliminator to determine the IBF’s mandatory challenger for one of Taylor’s titles. The IBF approved Ponce-Matias as a championship match once Scotland’s Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) gave up its junior welterweight title and eventually ordered a purse bid.

TGB Promotions won an IBF purse bid November 15 to earn the right to promote Ponce-Matias. Its winning bid of $510,000, submitted on behalf of Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions, was the only offer made that day.

The 30-year-old Matias, who is affiliated with Haymon’s PBC, hasn’t fought in nearly a year.

The knockout artist avenged his lone loss in his most recent bout, which resulted in a technical knockout of Petros Ananyan (17-3-2, 8 KOs) last January 22 at Borgata Event Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Armenia’s Ananyan declined to continue after a ninth round in which he was knocked down.

Ananyan upset Matias by unanimous decision in February 2020. Matias got off the canvas from a seventh-round knockdown in that bout, but he lost their 10-rounder on all three scorecards at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Ponce, who will end a 10-month layoff of his own, produced his most noteworthy win in June 2021. He dropped British contender Lewis Ritson (then 21-1) three times on his way to a 10-round, technical-knockout victory in that bout at Vertu Motors Arena in Newcastle England, Ritson’s hometown.

Two weeks before its February 25 telecast, Showtime will air a tripleheader February 11 from Alamodome in San Antonio. Mexico’s Rey Vargas (36-0, 22 KOs), who has held the WBC’s 126-pound and 122-pound championships, and Houston’s O’Shaquie Foster (19-2, 11 KOs) will fight for the vacant WBC 130-pound crown in the 12-round main event that night.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.