ANCAJAS-SULTAN FIGHT MAYBE HELD IN CALIFORNIA SAYS GIBBONS
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 25 Mar 2018
IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerwin Ancajas is scheduled to face his mandatory challenger compatriot Jonas Sultan.
The contest was originally targeted for the Terence Crawford-Jeff Horn undercard on April 14, but the event was postponed when Crawford suffered a hand injury.
With the indefinite postponement of the all-Filipino championship battle, the big question is where and when will this highly anticipated fight take place?
"At the moment we're waiting for our promoter Top Rank, Bob Arum has a tremendous vision coming up for Jerwin," Sean Gibbons, who co-promotes Ancajas, told BoxingScene.com.
According to Gibbons, Arum is planning to hold the fight in California because of the huge Filipino population in the Golden State.
"He sees Jerwin fighting in the California market, up in San Francisco, maybe Los Angeles. That's his target to bring Jerwin to the next step in his development as the next Filipino superstar in the United States."
As for the exact date of the Ancajas-Sultan encounter will take place, Gibbons stated in Boxingscene.com: "I foresee the fight happening in late May or in the beginning of June, in that time frame and we've had discussions with Bob, with Jerwin's management, Joven Sports, with Manny (Pacquiao), the markets in California are big. I was privileged enough to do a fight there with Albert Pagara and Cesar Juarez in Daly City."
He said that it was a tremendous success, and the turnout was 3,500 to 4,000 people. It was the time when Pagara suffered his first defeat when Juarez stopped him.
"It was just a very condensed market for Filipino's in that area, compared to working in L.A. where everything is so spread out and you go up against so many other events in the L.A. area and I think it's just a natural in the development of bringing Jerwin to the U.S.," added Gibbons.
It was Gibbons who arranged Ancajas? successful fourth title defense against Mexican Israel Gonzalez in February 3, 2018, at the Bank of America Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, which was televised on ESPN.
Now he faces his next foe Sultan, who is a friendly rival of his. "That fight is lined, signed and ready to go," said Gibbons.
Top Rank also reserved April 28 in Philadelphia for the Ancajas-Sultan showdown, but he later chose the WBO super bantamweight title bout between Jessie Magdaleno and mandatory challenger Isaac Dogboe.
Ancajas has a record of 29-1-1 with 20 KOs while Sultan has a slate of 14-3 with nine KO wins. Ancajas won the IBF title over Puerto Rican McJoe Arroyo in Taguig in September 2016.
Last year, Ancajas defended his title by stopping Mexican Jose Alfredo Rodriguez in Macau, Japanese Teiru Kinoshita in Australia and Irish Jamie Conlan in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Sultan (14-3, 9 KOs) also started his training at the ALA Boxing Gym in Cebu. He might be less popular but has made his made great upsets in fights overseas.
Sultan is ranked No. 6 by BoxRec in the superflyweight division by virtue of his wins over former champions Sonny Boy Jaro and John Riel Casimero, and a knockout victory over WBO bantamweight champion Zolani Tete?s brother Makazole in 2016.
When the fight pushes through, it will be the first time two Filipino boxers are matched for a world title fight since Pancho Villa defended his crown against Clever Sencio in 1925 at Wallace Field, the place of which is now Luneta Park in Manila. It was Villa?s penultimate fight before his death.
The Ancajas-Sultan bout will also be the first all-Filipino title fight in U.S. history.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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