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Philippines, 02 Jun 2025 |
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TOP RANK, BOB ARUM STUNTING ANCAJAS CAREER GROWTH By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Sun, 03 Nov 2019  (Author's Note: This is followup to my earlier published article titled, "The Jerwin Ancajas Dilemma") It is no longer a wonder why despite being a world titlist for more than three years now, Jerwin Ancajas has remained the same literally hungry and, painful to observe, a lesser known fighter compared to his fellow champions and few others in the super flyweight class. Blame Bob Arum and his Top Rank Promotion and his penchant for in-house fights where he pits his wards against each other if it suits his pecuniary interest. Or worse, against fighters from other promotion outfits allied to his company if he deems such Top Rank wards are not or not yet marketable or bankable enough despite their status or world ranking. IBF super flyweight champion Ancajas and featherweight Genesis Servania are the only two Filipinos under contract with Top Rank which in the past used to have Manny Pacquiao as its superstar fighter and main cash cow. At least Servania has had his fling at glory when Arum pitted him against another Top Rank top dog Oscar Valdez where he distinguished himself in a losing world title stab a few years back. With Valdez moving up to fight for a vacant super featherweight title, Servania, if luck and Arum smile at him, may soon find himself fighting for the title. And that's a big if. In more than three years, Ancajas has yet to figure in high profile, big money bouts despite already making seven successful title defenses of his world title. Since dethroning Puerto Rico's McJoe Arroyo in a woefully small budget title fight in 2016 held in Metro Manila, Ancajas has turned back the challenges of Jose Rodriguez, Jaime Conlan, Terou Konishita, Israel Gonzales, Jonas Sultan, Alex Santiago Barrios and Ryoichi Funai, a mix bag really in term of quality but generally considered as second tier fighters. His supposed challenger for his cancelled eighth title defense in Carson City, Mexican Jonathan Javier Rodriguez is not even rated among the top 15 contenders by the major world sanctioning bodies (a wonder, really ). His fight versus Rodriguez was as main support to the main event featuring WBC super featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt against challenger and Top Rank ward, ex champion Jason Sosa this weekend was belatedly cancelled due to Rodriguez visa problem. It was not Ancajas fault but Arum is now planning of even having Jerwin go to Mexico to fulfill his contract obligations with Top Rank and make his cancelled title defense there. Whether it will still be against the same Rodriguez remains to be seen as Santiago Barrios, who almost beat Ancajas in a recent defense, may be considered. And Ancajas will again play support to the main event set in Puebla, Mexico this December 4 starring another favorite Top Rank ward, WBO super bantamweight champion Emmanuel Navarette. What a way to treat a world champion! Ancajas has to settle for another virtually unknown challenger and he will have to go to his territory to defend his title. It cannot go any lower that that! Jerwin and his camp in fairness have for a time now been going after the division big names as Francisco Estrada, Khalid Yafai, Srisaket Sor Rungvusai, Roman Gonzalez and even Carlos Cuadras But without support from Top Rank and Arum, nothing came out of it. Even a defense against highly rated contenders as Andrew Moloney of Australia and Akexandru Marin of Bulgaria failed to lift off the ground. Moloney and Jayvier Cintron of Puerto Rico are the two other super flyweight fighters under contract with Top Rank and it will be easy for Arum to pair any of them with Ancajas in a high profile fight But it seems Arum has other plans for Moloney and Cintron who are now top contenders for the world titles respectively held by Yafai of UK (WBA) and Kazuto Ioka of Japan (WBO). He may be deeming both Moloney and Cintron as the better brandnames and money makers than Jerwin. Poor Jerwin who has to content with scraps at Top Rank. 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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