All-Filipino world-title showdown between Sultan, Ancajas today

THE MUCH awaited all-Filipino world-title showdown between ALA Boxing Gym’s Jonas “Zorro” Sultan and reigning International Boxing Federation (IBF) world super flyweight champion Jerwin “Pretty Boy” Ancajas will be held Saturday night (Sunday morning, Philippine Time) at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California.

This after the two ring warriors, who trained for more than four months, faced each other yesterday for the mandatory official weigh-in at the Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co.

Both boxers passed the weigh-in rights with Sultan tipping the scales at 114.4 pounds and Ancajas coming in at 114.8 pounds.

Both will face-off for 12 rounds in the main event of a double world-title showdown fight card promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions.

In the co-feature bout, Khalid Yafai of the United Kingdom will defend his WBA world super flyweight title against David Carmona of Mexico.

Both boxers rose to fame when they put on dominating performances last year.

Sultan beat two-division world champion Johnriel Casimero via unanimous decision to claim the top spot of the super flyweight division and earn the right to challenge Ancajas.

Ancajas successfully defended his title four times in lopsided fashion against different foreign opponents abroad. He beat Jose Alfredo Rodriguez of Mexico, Japanese Teiru Kinoshita, Irish Jamie Conlan, and Mexican Israel Gonzales.

There are a lot of things in common between the two boxers. Aside from being of the same age, both are also from Mindanao with Sultan (14 wins, 3 losses, 0 draws) coming from Tampilisan, Zamboanga del Norte and Ancajas (29-1-1) from Panabo City, Davao del Norte.

It has been 93 years since two Filipinos battled for a world title. The first one was in May 2, 1925 when Pancho Villa and Clever Sencio, fought for the world flyweight title at the Wallace Field in Manila.