Highly Questionable Title Eliminator
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 15 Sep 2025
Ancajas (L) and Nishida (R).
It is another of those decisions by major boxing sanctioning bodies that can only make you scratch your head in bewilderment.
The International Boxing Federation (IBF) recently ordered its former champions Ryosuke Nishida and Jerwin Ancajas to start negotiations for a title eliminator meeting that supposedly determine the body's mandatory challenger to undisputed world super bantamweight king Naoya Inoue in its turn.
Say what?
Did't Nishida just lost this June his IBF bantamweight belt to fellow Japanese WBO 118 lbs titleholder Junto Nakatani who brutally forced him to quit in his corner in the 6th round? If anybody is deserving of a slot in the title eliminator, it stands to reason that it has to be Nakatani who has even left the bantamweight and all his world belts to campaign full time at 122 lbs.
Regarding Ancajas, indeed he held the IBF super flyweight crown for nearly six years (September 2016 through June 2022). But he lost it decisively to Argentine Fernando Martinez and dropped another unanimous verdict to Martinez in an immediate title rematch. Moving up to bantamweight, he failed miserably in his attempt to unseat then WBA champion Takuma Inoue, losing by body punch knockout in the later tounds. Ancajas returned as a super bantamweight and notched two straight wins against unranked opponents.
Clearly, Ancajas and Nishida do not deserve this break the IBF has given them by way of a world title eliminator fight.
Oddly, in its latest ratings, the IBF which for some reason of its own does not rate #1 and #2 contenders, Ancajas is just ranked #5 and Nishida #8. Nakatani is still listed as IBF bantamweight champion though is rated #1 contender to Inoue at super bantamweight by the WBA.
Though Nakatani is not ranked by the IBF at super bantamweight, Filipino ex-titlist Marlon Tapales and UK's Shabaz Masoud are ranked higher at #3 and #4 than Ancajas while another Filipino Carl Jammes Martin and another Japanese Toshiki Masamichi have higher ratings than Nishida. Any two of those four mentioned super bantamweight fighters deserve to be in the IBF world title eliminator than Nishida and Ancajas.
Why is the IBF scrapping the bottom of its barrel at 122lbs for this so called world title eliminator fight?
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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