Liam Paro has signed a contract agreeing to travel to Puerto Rico to challenge IBF junior welterweight titleholder Subriel Matias in his home country.

Well, if social media is to be believed, anyway.

The 28-year-old Australian left-hander was unbeaten but unranked by The Ring. He had only fought twice in the past two and a half years, stopping former bantamweight Brock Jarvis in the first round and knocking out marginal contender Montana Love in the sixth. The consensus was that he had been in a bad shape and was far from home, so the judges would probably underestimate him if he somehow made it this far.

Matias’s reputation preceded him. This hazardous puncher won all but one fight, and each victory came by knockout. The only blemish on his record was a decision loss to Petros Ananyan. He took revenge for this defeat in a brutal way, with a nine-round beating.

The ferocious power and weighty punching power of the third contender for the Ring didn’t cause suitors to line up a mile deep to face him. The prospect of meeting the Puerto Rican in Puerto Rico didn’t sweeten the deal either.

But Paro jumped at the opportunity.

“I have always been good at focusing on the fight and blocking out the noise,” Paro (25-0, 15 KOs) said in an exclusive interview with The Ring about his unanimous points victory over Matias at the Coliseo Juan Aubin Cruz Abreu in Manati on June 15.

“We had a task to do and we focused on it. We had a game plan that my coach, Alfie Di Carlo, came up with and we executed it perfectly.

“I was just excited, I thought to myself, ‘This is it, it’s time to show the world what I know,’ and what better way than to fight a guy no one wanted to face.

“Everyone avoided him. No one wanted to say his name. The sheer scale of this victory is crazy.”

Paro did a perfect job of it, boxing beautifully from a distance in the early going, standing in the trenches when he had to in the middle rounds, and then dictating the rhythm and tempo for the last four verses.

It was an almost virtuoso performance.

“It was perfect. I have to take my hat off to Alfie Di Carlo. His boxing intelligence, when it comes to that side of things, is incredible. His boxing IQ is top notch and I trusted him 100 percent,” Paro said.

“I knew I would have to fight against [Matias]. I couldn’t keep running. And when I did, I abused the bully.

“He was throwing punches, but I had an answer for everything. So I knew I was going to get punched in this fight. You can’t swim without getting soggy.

“We knew Matias’s fighting style, so I knew what I was getting into. I said that up front. The way we executed the plan was perfect.”

Di Carlo secured a comfortable lead in the middle rounds when it seemed for a moment that the fight might go to waste.

The Mackay-born fighter faced some weighty blows tardy in the sixth round, but an energetic motivational speech from the Brisbane lawyer and property developer stabilized the situation.

“Alfie is the best in the world,” Paro laughed as she recalled her coach’s colorful language. “We know each other really well and that’s what makes our bond special. An antique mate could hit me with a hammer and Alfie would still talk me into it.

“He said, ‘We’re in a fight, that’s all. Don’t give him a reason. It was pretty verbal, and that’s what it’s about.’

“He reminded me that this is what we do, this is what we dream of. This is it. Don’t give him anything. Don’t give him a reason. This is weathering the storm. But at the same time, Alfie keeps you silent in the corner, which is ideal.”

“We knew the way Matias fought, so I knew what I was getting into.[…]The way we executed the plan was perfect.”

Martial arts fans and experts gave Paro little chance of success, as did bookmakers, who estimated this contender at +600.

The outcry on social media turned into an amplified voice. The Australian was knocked out.

“You have met your executioner. He already killed a guy in the ring. Fortunately, there is a hospital nearby,” Di Carlo said on the local streaming service 7plus about negative comments that have appeared on the Internet.

“People really believed this guy was a killer; an absolute killer who had enough punching power to destroy any boxer.

“It was common knowledge that no one could keep up with this guy for 12 rounds. Nobody. And I think what Liam did, halving the effectiveness of the killer, showed what’s possible in boxing and the sweet science of it.

That he did it.

Paro’s punch was exact, his body attacks were consistent throughout all 12 rounds, and he varied his punch selection, keeping Matias guessing what was coming. As a result, Paro won a unanimous victory in the opponent’s territory with scores of 116-111, 115-112 and 115-112.

“Before the fight I said Liam Paro beats Subriel Matias,” Di Carlo continued. “They can say whatever they want now, but none of them wanted to. They were all offered the fight and they all said no.

“Liam did it. But it didn’t just throw him out. It’s not like Liam woke up in his bed in Brisbane that morning of the fight. We went there and moved our whole lives. We went into an atmosphere full of 10,000 screaming Puerto Ricans. They put us in a locker room that was like a bathroom stall with two-way doors. We had no privacy. So when I put my hand guards on, I moved them. I said, ‘This is a joke.’

“But we were basically in a bathroom stall with two-way doors, and people were running through all night to get to the ring. So everything was done to put us in a position where we were uncomfortable. But we never let any of that bother us. A normal person might, but we were focused on one thing, and that was winning the championship.”

Local referee Luis Pabon also did the guy no favors. He was already berating Paro in the corner in the second round, and in the seventh he deducted a point for what seemed like a fairly harmless rabbit punch in the clinch.

“You could see in the second round he was ready for me,” Paro said. “I watched the fight and even when we went into the break he was pushing me so Matias could get back on the attack. He was watching me like a hawk. Matias was hitting me like a rabbit too. But that’s the way it is. At the end of the day they tried everything. He gave it his all and I won. I think that makes the victory even sweeter.”

“Boxing is a mental game. I’ve been saying it for a long time, I have the best mind in this game. I have a very forceful mind and some people have asked me if I’m nervous about it. But you can’t be. You need to focus on work.

“I had a great fighter that I was boxing with, so I knew I had to stick to my game plan. I felt comfortable there, like we were going at it pretty easily. I knew if I kept doing what I had to do and kept it tidy, the referee wouldn’t be able to do much.

Before the fight, Paro told The Ring that he had no concerns about whether the judges would make the right call if the fight went forward. Still, he admits that waiting in the middle of the ring between the final bell and the announcement of the winner was tiring.

“I was convinced we had done enough; it seemed pretty one-sided,” he said. “But of course, those thoughts are in the back of your mind. We’re in his territory and we’ve seen some crazy talk in the dugout recently, so it was very stressful until I raised my hand and we heard the words, ‘And that’s news!’

Matias (20-2, 20 KO), 32, was so confident going into the fight that his team didn’t even insist on a rematch clause. That opened the door for Paro to make his maiden title defense at home in Australia, and if that happens, he only wants large names.

“Any one of these guys with belts,” Paro said. “I want to bring the large fight back to Australia. I am a proud Australian; we deserve large fights. Like I said, I’m a fighter and I will fight anyone. I’ve proven it and I’m still proving it. Bring them to Australia and I will fight them. As long as there is another lane, bring them in.”

A decade ago, luring a high-profile opponent to Australia would have been considered a pipe dream, but recently, state governments have shown a willingness to fund boxing events. Manny Pacquiao, Mairis Briedis, Devin Haney and Vasiliy Lomachenko have all boxed here in recent years, so the idea of ​​luring someone like Ring Magazine and WBO champion Teofimo Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs) may not be as far-fetched as it initially sounds.

“There have been miniature conversations, the idea is floating around, but nothing has really been decided,” Paro said. “When I get back to Australia, we’ll start pushing and start something, we’ll figure out which way we’re going to go.

“I definitely want to have another fight this year, that’s for sure. I want to be busy. Now I have a target on my back. All I say is, “Come and get it.”