Tomorrow night Top Rank brings a super flyweight doubleheader to ESPN+ in conjunction with Matchroom Boxing. In the main event, highly underrated Filipino titleholder Jerwin Ancajas will defend his belt against fellow countryman Jonas Sultan while England’s Khalid Yafai does the same in the co-main event versus David Carmona.
IBF super flyweight title Jerwin Ancajas (29-1-1, 20 KOs) is one of the more under appreciated fighters in the sport. It makes sense. The fighters among the lower weight classes have always had a difficult time getting the international attention they deserve. HBO has brought some unusual notoriety to the super flyweight division through their two Super Fly cards, but Ancajas hasn’t been a part of that and hasn’t gotten the bump from it like some others in the division have. Instead he signed with Top Rank.
While Top Rank is turning into an even bigger promotional powerhouse than they have always been, it is a shame that Ancajas hasn’t been featured on those shows because he has some excellent wins to his name that could have been showcased. He first announced himself in a title win in 2016 against highly regarded Puerto Rican McJoe Arroyo. That was a decent sized upset as no one really knew who Ancajas was at the time and he dominated. Famously, the Filipino made less than four grand for the title win.
Ancajas defended his belt once in Macao before getting his big breakthrough in the form of being Manny Pacquiao’s and Jeff Horn’s co-main event in Australia. He made the most of it, dominating and stopping Japanese contender Teiru Konoshitu in seven. He introduced himself to the British audience next by traveling there and destroying unbeaten contender Jamie Conlan in six, dropping him three times along the way. The Filipino titleholder then signed his deal with Top Rank and has fought once under their banners, stopping overmatched Israel Gonzalez in ten in February.
Despite the pedestrian looking record of Jonas Sultan (14-3, 9 KOs), Ancajas is in much tougher in this fight than he was against Gonzalez. Young fighters have it rough in the Philippines. They are often thrown to the wolves without consideration for match making from a promoter and take early losses. Occasionally one begins to rise above and that is what we have here with the 26 year old. Sultan started 9-3, but he has reeled off five straight wins against increasingly difficult competition.
The meaningful run really started three fights ago when he traveled to South Africa to stop Makazole Tete in two. The Tete win wasn’t huge on its own, but it came with the minor IBF title that would eventual lead to tomorrow night’s IBF world title opportunity. Next Sultan came back home to upset and stop solid fringe contender Sonny Boy Jaro in eight rounds. This got him noticed by hardcore fight fans for the first time. It also put him in with a truly elite fighter in John Riel Casimero next. Casimero had long been a dominant flyweight titleholder, a truly elite fighter. While he was moving up in weight, everyone figured him to be the clear favorite in his title eliminator with Jonas Sultan. Nope. Sultan controlled most of the fight and won a clear decision.
Despite his record, Jonas Sultan probably represents the stiffest test in Jerwin Ancajas’s title reign so far. Yet, I honestly think so high of Ancajas’s gifts in the ring that it might not matter. I do think Jonas Sultan is a good fighter. I also think Ancajas is just going to style on him. It will take one of the absolute elite super flyweights to bring down Jerwin Ancajas in my view.
Maybe that elite super flyweight could be Khalid Yafai (23-0, 14 KOs) if the British WBA titleholder does well in the co-main event against David Carmona (21-5-5, 9 KOs). Yafai doesn’t have the resume of Ancajas or really even Sultan, but he is a clearly gifted athlete and an excellent fighter. He won his belt in late 2016 against Luis Concepcion and has defended it twice against good but not great Japanese competition.
David Carmona is in about the same range. Had Yafai taken him on after Carmona made it the distance and won a couple rounds off Monster Inoue or after he almost upset Carlos Cuadras in his next fight, the Mexican would be viewed as a more interesting test. Unfortunately for David Carmona, he was upset by early knockout in his next fight by a man in Daniel Lozano that he had already beaten. This put him on a three fight losing streak punctuated by a pretty bad loss at its end. Carmona has only taken one low level win prior to getting this opportunity.
Should both men win, and they probably will, the idea when this was booked was to match them in a unification fight. I have a sneaking suspicion that Eddie Hearn’s upcoming US streaming service might throw a wrench in those plans, but hopefully not. Jerwin Ancajas versus Khalid Yafai sounds pretty amazing to me. Jonas Sultan and David Carmona will certainly try to have something to say about that come tomorrow night in Fresno, however.
The two main bouts will begin at 9:30 PM Eastern and air on ESPN+, the sports giant’s $5 per month streaming service. Prelim bouts begin three hours earlier at 6:30 and will feature top Russian welterweight prospect Alexander Besputin (9-0, 7 KOs) and a bunch of lower level fights.
