Patience is truly a virtue.
After months and months of waiting while camping out in Los Angeles, Jerwin Ancajas was finally rewarded with a big one.
On 31 December at the New Ota Gymnasium in Tokyo, Ancajas battles four-division world champion Kazuto Ioka with his International Boxing Federation (IBF) strap and the Japanese puncher’s World Boxing Organization (WBO) belt on the line.
One of boxing’s longest reigning titleholders nowadays, Ancajas, 29, will be making his tenth defense of the IBF 115-lb plum he had won in September 2016 in Manila.
Ioka, 32, holds the distinction of being Japan’s first and only quadruple titleholder and poses serious threats for Ancajas’ quest to annex the WBO diadem.
“I didn’t lose hope while I was training here knowing that my team, led by Sean Gibbons, is doing everything to get me a fight,” Ancajas told Daily Tribune yesterday from Los Angeles.
“Me and my coach and manager Joven Jimenez had full trust in his ability to deliver,” added Ancajas, who holds a 33-1-2 win-loss-draw card with 22 knockouts.
Ioka sports a 27-2 slate with 15 knockouts and is coming off a hard-earned victory over Francisco Rodriguez of Mexico last September.
Ancajas hasn’t been as busy as Ioka.
Last time he was in the ring, Ancajas weathered a furious storm in Jonathan Rodriguez, also from Mexico, last April in Connecticut.
But the inactivity is something that doesn’t bother Jimenez, who swears hard work will negate that.
Not even traveling into the lion’s den doesn’t faze Team Ancajas.
“As long as you are prepared, you have nothing to worry,” Jimenez added.
To get used to the local conditions in Japan, Ancajas and Jimenez will fly to Tokyo on 11 December.
The Filipino southpaw needs to quarantine himself for three to four days before being allowed to go out.
Ioka had taken the then-vacant WBO plum by stopping the heavy-handed Filipino Aston Palicte in June 2019 in Chiba.
He has since made three successful defenses, beating Jeyvier Cintron of Puerto Rico, compatriot Kosei Tanaka and Rodriguez.
Ioka has fought a total of ten times on 31 December, which traditionally holds a big boxing show as a welcome to a new year, and won nine times.
The only time Ioka lost on that red-letter date was against Filipino legend and four-division ruler Donnie Nietes in Macau in 2018.
