The San Francisco Bay Area is the leading contender to land the historic all-Filipino world title fight starring champion Jerwin Ancajas and mandatory challenger Jonas Sultan in May or June, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-flyweight titleholder?s US agent said yesterday.
Sean Gibbons said Ancajas? fifth defense of the IBF 115-lb crown against Sultan, the first meeting involving Filipinos in a world title fight in almost a century, is being eyed to take place in the region that has a large volume of Filipino residents.
The Bay Area is made up of key California cities like San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland as well as San Mateo, Hayward, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Concord, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Richmond, Berkeley and Daly City.
?I am hoping it lands there,? said Gibbons as Top Rank chief Bob Arum is about to finalize the date and location of the fight.
In the event Top Rank doesn?t get a deal in place in the Bay Area, the alternative is to bring it to Los Angeles.
The Ancajas-Sultan battle was supposed to happen underneath the April 14 world welterweight headliner featuring Terence Crawford and Jeff Horn in Las Vegas but was cancelled after Crawford hurt his hand while sparring.
