NEXT UP: ANCAJAS vs SULTAN
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 04 Feb 2018
CEBU -- After disposing his game Mexican challenger Israel Gonzalez with an impressive 10th round stoppage Saturday night (Sunday in Manila) in Corpus Christi, Texas, the celebrations of Jerwin Ancajas and his team together with a sizable Filipino boxing fans has yet to die down but Jerwin's next fight is already pregnant with anticipation.
Not since Filipino Hall of Famer Pancho Villa (Francisco Guilledo) defeated Clever Sencio at the Wallace Field in Manila on May 2, 1925 to retain his world flyweight title that two Filipinos fought for a world championship in boxing.
Now 93 years later, that scenario is more than likely going to happen ? and soon.
Sultan has become the mandatory challenger of Ancajas after Sultan defeated former IBF junior flyweight and flyweight champion Johnriel Casimero last September in Cebu in an eliminator bout for Ancajas's crown. Ancajas last fought a mandatory challenger on July 2, 2017 against Teiru Kinoshita of Japan. After his victory over Gonzalez Saturday night in Texas, Ancajas is due to fight his mandatory challenger by April 2.
?We have initial discussion with Sean [Gibbons, Ancajas's matchmaker] regarding the Ancajas vs Sultan fight,? ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer, Sultan's promoter, told Philboxing. ?But of course we have not discussed the details because I know they wanted to focus on Ancajas's fight with Gonzalez.?
Aldeguer, who was very much impressed by Ancajas's performance against Gonzalez, expressed reservation about that fight. ?As you know I really don't like the idea of a Filipino vs Filipino fighting for a world title fight. But if we are mandated to do so, then we are going to take it. On the other hand, I think it can also be good for Philipine boxing as a whole because it will show to the world that the Filipinos have arrived in boxing's biggest stage,? Aldeguer said.
Gibbons earlier told Boxingscene Ancajas will be going to fight Sultan next: ?We have to do this [Gonzalez] fight and then we have to do our mandatory against Jonas Sultan and then we pick another fight.? And later he told journalist Quinito Henson: ?We can pay a $20,000 exception fee for a postponement of the mandatory defense but in five or six months, we?ll have to fight Sultan anyway.?
Ancajas (29-1-1, 20KOs) has the edge in experience over Sultan (14-3-0, 9KOs) and decidedly will be the heavy favorite come fight night. However, it is unwise to write off Sultan completely as he had defeated two former world champions in his last two fights in Johnriel Casimero and Sonny Boy Jaro.
If the fight were to be made, it will likely be on the undercard of the Horn vs Crawford WBO world welterweight title fight on April 21 at the Madison Square Garden in New York where comebacking Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao is also expected to be on the card.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dong Secuya.
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