After retaining his title last night with a 10th round stoppage of Israel Gonzalez, Jerwin Ancajas’ team is looking ahead to the next fight, and likely an IBF mandatory title defense.
Saturday night at the Bank of America Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, Ancajas made an impressive United States debut, stopping Mexico’s Israel Gonzalez in the tenth round via TKO to retain his IBF Super Flyweight world championship.
Ancajas (29-1-1, 20 knockouts) of Panabo City, Philippines scored a knockdown on a left hand in the first round before settling into a counter-punching rhythm for much of the fight. The action heated up in the 5th when Gonzalez (21-2, 8 KOs) turned aggressive and backed Ancajas up to the ropes, but by the end of the round it was Ancajas who was landing the cleaner blows upstairs with his counter left hands and right hooks.
The mandatory challenger for Ancajas (29-1-1, 20 KO) is fellow Filipino Jonas Sultan, a 26-year-old from Cebu City, and ESPN says that a fight between the two would be the first all-Filipino world title fight in boxing since 1925.
MP Promotions matchmaker Sean Gibbons had this to say:
“In the IBF we have a mandatory with another Filipino Jonas Sultan. We’re looking into that. If we have to do that fight we’ll do it. If not, we’ll see what’s out there. But we’re kind of looking at the mandatory right now.”
Sultan, at 14-3 (9 KO), doesn’t have the prettiest record, but he’s a hot fighter at the moment. He knocked off veteran Sonny Boy Jaro via eighth round KO last May, and then upset Johnriel Casimero in September, winning by decision. Casimero is a former 108 and 112-pound titleholder and still in his prime years, so that’s a win you have to take very seriously.