IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin ‘Pretty Boy’ Ancajas 33-1-2 (22) kept his dreams of a big fight in the stacked 115-pound division alive with a unanimous decision victory over mandatory challenger Jonathan Rodriguez 22-2 (16) at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut on Saturday night.
The super flyweight division is one of the deepest divisions in boxing with WBC and WBA champion Juan Francisco Estrada 42-3 (28) leading the pack. Evergreen veteran Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez 50-3 (41), former world champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai 50-5-1 (43) and WBO titleholder Kazuto Ioka 26-2 (15) are amongst the other big names at 115-pounds.
Ancajas, who won the IBF 115-pound strap with a points decision over McJoe Arroyo in September 2016 and has now made nine successful title defences, called out the big names prior to his mandatory title defence on Saturday night.
“I want people to know my name,” Ancajas said. “Everybody always talks about Estrada, Chocolatito and Rungvisai so that’s why I’m excited to have this opportunity to showcase my skills and challenge those guys.
“I’m looking to win on Saturday night and I want to fight whoever is left after the four-man tournament between Rungvisai, Chocolatito, Estrada and [Carlos] Cuadras.
“I’m always calling the name of any titleholder in my division, so I would fight Ioka too. I want a signature fight because I’m tired of people criticizing me for not fighting anybody.
“After this, that’s what I’m targeting and then once I get that fight I plan to move to 118 pounds sometime next year.
“If I had to choose one name, I would want to fight Chocolatito because I always watched him on TV and he’s my idol. Now, if I have the opportunity to fight Chocolatito I really want that fight.
“It doesn’t bother me that everybody is always talking about Chocolatito and Estrada and those guys. It’s a compliment. I know that one day it will come and I will get the opportunity to fight those guys.
“A lot of people will be watching on Saturday night so I want to make a great statement so that my name can still be in the mix with all of those guys.”
The 29-year-old Filipino southpaw had to work hard to defeat Rodriguez. The 25-year-old Mexican closed the show well to win the final three rounds on all three judges’ scorecards despite being dropped in the eighth.
“This was the toughest defence for me,” admitted Ancajas, who won by scores of 115-112, 116-111 and 117-110. “This was very hard for me.”
Rodriguez felt the fight was closer than the judges had it.
“I don’t think it was a just decision, I think it might have been a split-decision, I would have accepted that a little more, but we knew coming in that the judges were against us for this fight,” Rodriguez said.
“I did have to recuperate in the (eighth). There’s no excuses. He hit me with a good shot and I got knocked down. He did hurt me, but I was very motivated to keep on fighting.
“Now people know that I’m a great rival here. Anyone that wants to fight me, I will be ready to fight them. They saw today what I can do here in the ring.”
