Jerwin Ancajas said yesterday he is on the lookout for one of boxing’s most treacherous enemies: Overconfidence.
While it is paramount in every fighter that he oozes with confidence, having too much of it could backfire.
“If there is one thing I don’t want to happen is for me to become overconfident,” said Ancajas just hours before taking an evening Philippine Airlines flight to Los Angeles on Friday.
Ancajas puts his International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-flyweight crown on the line for the eighth time against Mexican banger Jonathan Rodriguez on Nov. 2 in Carson, California.
Ancajas insists that he did everything humanely possible the last three months while training at the Philippine Navy base in San Antonio, Zambales.
When he bolted out from training camp, Ancajas’ weight was right on check.
“I am just eight or nine pounds over the (super-fly) limit of 115 lbs,” said the 27-year-old, a reservist in the Philippine Navy.
With sports nutritionist Jeaneth Aro joining him in the trip to supervise his diet, Ancajas is not worried at all making weight on the eve of the fight.
Besides, Ancajas had tapped Aro when he made a mandatory defense of the title last May in Stockton where he breezed through the official scales.
But once Team Ancajas sets up camp in LA, longtime trainer-manager Joven Jimenez will preside over the final stage of training.
Jimenez brought along bosom buddy Fernando Parcon to assist him in the daily chores following the exodus of key personnel.
Sean Gibbons, the right-hand man of Manny Pacquiao over at MP Promotions, who went ahead, will welcome Ancajas and his party at LAX.
Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. is staging the Ancajas-Rodriguez brawl set to take place at the Dignity Health Sports Park. (Nick Giongco)
