NEW YORK — March 15 represents a new beginning for junior welterweight prospect Reshat Mati.

The 25-year-old from Staten Island, N.Y. will face Irving Macias in an eight-round bout at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, in a supporting bout on the Callum Walsh vs. Dauren Yeleussinov fight, which will be broadcast on UFC Fight Pass. It will be his first fight since splitting with promoter Matchroom Boxing, which had represented him since he turned pro in 2018, and Mati hopes to have a strong performance to get him started in the right direction.

“After I fought my last fight, some stuff went down with financial stuff. I got nothing but love for Matchroom, all those guys I treat them like my family. It was time to take time away from each other, maybe one day we can go back to it. If we can sit down and talk to each other, you never know. In my mind it was time for a change and it was time for me to move on,” said Mati (14-0, 8 knockouts).

That first step involves a showdown with Macias (15-4, 10 KOs), a 23-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico who now lives in San Diego, Calif. Macia is coming off two losses in his previous fights, and had previously been stopped by Marc Castro and Angel Aponte.

“He’s a very awkward guy, you can’t tell if he’s a brawler or a boxer, but he’s tall and lanky for a guy at 140. He’s taller than me by about two inches so in the first round I have to kinda figure him out,” said Mati.

“He’s fought a lot of tough guys and he has a good knockout ratio. It’s gonna be a good fight.”

Mati, who is trained by Aureliano Sosa, will be fighting for the third time in four fights at Madison Square Garden, including his last bout, a ninth round stoppage of dangerous spoiler Dakota Linger last June. Mati says that The Garden is the greatest arena in the world – followed by Brooklyn’s Barclays Center at a close second – and hopes an impressive performance can earn him an opportunity at a top 20 contender.

Among the names he says interest him are former WBC/WBO junior welterweight titleholder Jose Ramirez, plus Arnold Barboza and Ohara Davies. Another matchup that intrigues him, but would likely take time to build up, would be against WBO junior welterweight titleholder Teofimo Lopez. The two had faced once before in the amateurs, with Lopez winning a split decision at the 2015 USA Youth National Championships.

Mati says he hasn’t forgotten about that fight, which he says is a score that remains to be settled.

“I lost a little weird split decision. I thought I won the fight easy, it is what it is, I was a little younger back then. I definitely wanted to get one rematch back in since then. It’s been in my mind since, Reno, Nevada. I definitely want to run that back one more time but I guess my time will wait,” said Mati.

First things first, he has to get past Macias.

“Irving is in my way. That’s the only thing that’s been on my mind for the past two months, I’m going in to win the fight. After that there’s a lot of guys in certain promotions that I want to target,” said Mati.

Ryan Songalia has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler and The Guardian, and is part of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism Class of 2020. He can be reached at [email protected].