It wasn’t exactly thrilling, but Jerwin Ancajas retained his IBF super flyweight title on ESPN+ with a wide decision over fellow Filipino Jonas Sultan. Khalid Yafai also successfully defended his fight in the co-feature with a fun win over David Carmona in a much, much more fun fight to watch.Â
Not a lot separated the two Filipinos in the opening round of the main event. Defending titleholder Jerwin Ancajas (30-1-1, 20 KOs) did land a nice straight shot at the round’s close though. Jonas Sultan was able to get his right hand going in the second a bit, but Ancajas got his one two going as well to better effect. It wasn’t exciting stuff though. Their styles clashed a bit for sure. The third was the same. Jonas was there, game, and did get a bit done, but the technical skills of Ancajas were enough to keep him separated from his less orthodox challenger.
This was basically the fight over twelve rounds. Jonas Sultan tried to employ his side to side, in an out attack. He’d have some limited success basically every round too. It just was never enough to win anything in terms of scoring. Through six I hadn’t given him a round. The boo birds were starting to sing too.
Really there was very little to say about this fight. It wasn’t dreadful despite the boos. It wasn’t exciting either though by any means and was a tough sell following the adrenaline of the previous bout. Sultan did a little better in the ninth, I guess, and his team was excited about the idea of Ancajas tiring in the corner. I didn’t see it, but it was a story line that existed to be discussed.
If he lost the ninth, Ancajas rebounded to win the double digit rounds and clearly take the fight. Sultan got his left hook going in the fight’s last third, sure, but it wasn’t enough to really get wins in the rounds. I scored the fight 119-109 for Ancajas. That came back twice with a 117-111 for a unanimous decision win for Jerwin Ancajas.
The first round in the opener, on the other hand, was a wild one. For about a minute it looked like it would be a blowout when Khalid Yafai (24-0, 15 KOs) clipped David Carmona (21-6-5, 9 KOs) with a left hook on top of his head and dropped him in a slightly delayed reaction. The WBA titleholder came in aggressively looking for the finish only to get clipped hard himself. He was clearly hurt and had to hang on. When he let go, he fell but not directly from a punch. The champ won the first round 10-8, but somehow left with all his supporters feeling nervous about that.
The second round was a fun phone booth war. Khalid was definitely getting the better of it overall, but he was still getting hit back with big shots here and there. He took more control in the third behind an extremely stiff power jab regularly followed by hooks. Carmona ripped the body well in the second half of the round too, but not enough to have a solid claim on it. The Mexican contender went down early in the fourth and received a count. It wasn’t a good call though. Carmona protested that it was on a low blow and it was. He was buzzed by a right hand later in the round too. This was pretty brutal stuff in a great fight.
It looked like the end for David Carmona in the fifth when he went down on a three punch combination, the most damaging shots within it being two power jabs. The Mexican and his big heart went down again shortly thereafter and a strange scene ensued. Carmona immediately complained about a low blow and it looked like he was going to be listened to. Yet, referee Raul Caiz instead ruled that Yafai scored a legitimate knockdown but then hit him while he was down. He did land a late shot on the shoulder. Caiz deducted a point in response.
The sixth was more of the same without the knockdowns. Kal Yafai won it clearly, but Carmona was right there firing back. I thought both men were actually tiring in the seventh a little and understandably so. It didn’t matter though. Carmona and his team pulled him out of the fight before the eighth. On one hand given how he was in the fight every minute it was a strange decision, but at the same time he was taking a lot of damage, had been dropped three times officially, and probably hadn’t won a round even though all of them were competitive. He was near impossibly behind on the cards, taking a lot of punishment, and isn’t a puncher. I like the decision.
Technically speaking this wasn’t a great performance for Khalid Yafai as he basically engaged in the war that Carmona wanted, but it sure was a fun one. It also should be noted that Carmona missed weight by three and a half pounds for this fight and wasn’t eligible to win the belt. That might not sound like a lot, but at this low of weight it is a really large number.
