by Nick Giongco
Jerwin Ancajas is back on training mode in his threadbare training camp in Magallanes, Cavite, after being advised that he might find himself making the mandatory defense of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-flyweight crown as early as April 14 in Las Vegas.
“We are on standby because there is a possibility that my next defense will be in April and not in June as I had been told” said Ancajas from the Survival Training Camp that he and manager-trainer Joven Jimenez operate.
Since Ancajas is due for a mandatory defense, his opponent will be the top-rated Filipino Jonas Sultan of the ALA Boxing of Cebu.
Sultan, like Ancajas, has been reporting to the gym in anticipation of his first world title shot after earning the status of mandatory challenger with an upset win over former world champion Johnriel Casimero last year.
Ancajas is fresh from retaining the IBF 115-lb crown in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he stopped Israel Gonzalez of Mexico.
Bob Arum of Top Rank Inc. is staging the world welterweight title fight starring Australian champion Jeff Horn and American challenger Terence Crawford.
That Top Rank card was supposed to have Manny Pacquiao as well but the fighting senator has opted to venture beyond Arum’s reach and is said to be on the cusp of putting a deal in place to resurface in Kuala Lumpur in May.
Jimenez said US fight agent Sean Gibbons will know any day this week if Ancajas and Sultan are indeed on a collision course for what will be the first all-Filipino world title fight in almost a century.