Jerwin Ancajas, currently the longest reigning Filipino world champion, tangles with Jonathan Rodriguez of Mexico on Nov. 2 at the Dignity Health Sports Park (formerly StubHub Center) in Carson, California.
It will be Ancajas’ eighth defense of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-flyweight crown he had won more than three years ago.
Ranked 14th in the IBF’s 115-lb class, Rodriguez holds a record of 21-1 with 15 KOs and his clash with Ancajas will be his first crack at a world crown.
Ancajas, parading a 31-1-2 mark with 21 KOs, stopped mandatory challenger Ryuichi Funai of Japan last May in Stockton, California.
Ancajas is one of four Filipino world champions in the company of Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire and the newly-crowned Pedro Taduran.
The number could climb to five by the end of the year should John Riel Casimero dethrone Zolani Tete for the WBO bantamweight diadem on Nov. 23 in London or Birmingham provided that Donaire upsets Japanese KO king Naoya Inoue in their WBA-IBF bantam clash on Nov. 7 in Saitama.
Ancajas is promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. and he is in the thick of training under Joven Jimenez at the Philippine Marines base camp in San Antonio, Zambales.
MP Promotions president Sean Gibbons is now facilitating the itinerary of Ancajas and Jimenez and they are looking at Oct. 12 or Oct. 19 as departure dates for Los Angeles.
