By Nick Giongco
On the eve of his arrival in the US, Jonas Sultan was a picture of utmost confidence, sounding as though he was travelling for rest and recreation, and not to wage a war with the weight division’s fast-rising star.
Sultan, who challenges Jerwin Ancajas for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-flyweight crown on May 26 in Fresno, California, told Tempo that he can’t simply wait to show his true worth.
“I have done everything that is needed in training,” said Sultan, the mandatory challenger to Ancajas’ IBF 115-lb title as he was packing his luggage in his homebase of Cebu City yesterday for the four-week stay in the US.
Sultan (14-3 with nine K0s) insists that he is all set to rumble with Ancajas (29-1-1 with 20 K0s).
“No problem. I feel great and everything is being handled by my trainers, including my sparring and weight,” said Sultan, a native of Zamboanga del Norte.
For Sultan, the only stumbling block to his ascension to the IBF throne is the fight itself.
“Jerwin’s the only one standing in my way,” said Sultan, whose duel with Ancajas will be the first all-Filipino world title fight in almost a century.
Ancajas, who has terrorized the weight class with a combination of power and panache, is one major road block.
Last year, Ancajas repulsed three challengers – Mexican Jose Alfredo Rodriguez in Macau, Japanese Teiru Kinoshita in Brisbane and Northern Ireland’s Jamie Conlan in Belfast – while last February, he stopped another Mexican, Israel Gonzalez, in Corpus Christi, Texas.