Jerwin Ancajas Settles For Scrap (Again)
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 16 Nov 2019
Ironically, fighting for the first time in Mexico, a land first made famous by the legendary Rock a Bye Ruben Olivares in the 60s and since then to this day, has churned out a slew of feisty bantamweights, IBF junior bantamweight or super flyweight titlist Jerwin Ancajas has to contend, and content himself, with an obscure twice defeated Chilean for his eighth title defense.
After seeing his November 2 Carson, California match against a little known Mexican challenger Jonathan Javier Rodriguez scrapped due to the latter's visa problem, Ancajas now has to settle for Chile's Miguel Gonzalez as title opponent in a December 7 main support bout to a super bantamweight title defense by another of Arum's fair haired ward, WBO titlist Emmanuel Navarrete in Puebla, Mexico.
In choosing Gonzalez and not any available Mexican contender, Promoter Bob Arum obviously avoided the accusation that he put Ancajas into the situations of the proverbial rock or a hard place or from the frying pan into the fire when he decided to move Jerwin's title defense to Mexico.
But should we thank Uncle Bob for that?
In hanging on with Jerwin despite the snafu not of Jerwin's making in the first place, Arum is fulfilling a commitment that the Filipino would not want of any fight, especially in the defense of his world title.
Indeed, since winning the IBF title by decision over McJoe Arroyo in late 2014 and signing up with Top Rank, Ancajas has been among the busiest defending world champions around, averaging two title defenses per year.
But what has been noticeable especially with the choice of Rodriguez and now, Gonzalez is the not improving quality of the opponents being selected for Ancajas in the defense of his title.
For the record, Ancajas has faced and mostly defeated the following in title defense: Jose Alfredo Rodriguez, Terou Kinoshita, Israel Gonzalez, Jonas Sultan, Jamie Conlan, Alejandro Santiago Barrios and Ryuchi Funai. Except for Alex Barrios, no one among them is or was in the top ten of the Ring Magazine or the combined ratings of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
Per the latest Boxrec rating, Miguel Gonzalez is number 36 among the world's super flyweights.
Ancajas himself is just number five in the Ring Magazine super flyweight ranking topped by Juan Francisco Estrada, even behind Kazuto Ioka and Donnie Nietes. He is rated number six in Boxrec even behind WBA champion Khalid Yafai.
Fighting and beating the like of Chilean Gonzalez will not improve Ancajas image and ranking.
Miguel Gonzalez is a Chilean fighter rated number 14 in the IBF in the super flyweight division with an overall fight record of 30 wins but only eight by KO against two defeats, one by KO. He is coming off two wins after being stopped by Andrew Moloney last February. His only other defeat was on points to UK's Paul Buttler in 2015.
His only other prominent foe was Luis Alberto Lazarte whom he beat on points in 2015 in a Fedelatin title bout. Lazarte is best known as the Argentine that Johnriel Casimero stopped in a junior flyweight title fight that triggered a fan attack against the Filipino corner in 2012 in Mar de Plata.
With a resume like that, should we thank Arum for taking care of Jerwin Ancajas in his forthcoming Mexico gig?
Meanwhile, the two other foreign super flyweight fighters under Top Rank are getting better breaks and fights.
Andrew Moloney has just won the WBA interim belt recently by stopping Elton Dharry in Melbourne. The win assures Moloney a near future lucrative title confrontation with WBA regular titleholder Khalid Yafai.
Puerto Rican Javier Cintron on the other hand will attempt to wrest the WBO super flyweight crown from the head of Kazuto Ioka in a high profile title fight to be held in Japan in December 30. If victorious, Cintron will surely be in the mix for any future s?per flyweight super fight or even tournament as being envisioned under the World Boxing Super Series.
With these, Jerwin is really settling for left overs once again under Arum.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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