Jerwin Ancajas retained his IBF super flyweight title with yet another dominant performance on an ESPN platform.
Ancajas defeated mandatory challenger Jonas Sultan by unanimous decision (117-111, 119-109, 119-109) in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing card streamed exclusively on the ESPN+ streaming service.
The fight was dominated by Ancajas? jab, which helped set up his left hand and created some distance to prevent Sultan from establishing an offensive rhythm. Sultan tried to make the fight competitive, but was outclassed by the more experienced Ancajas, who is fighting in his sixth consecutive world title fight. Ancajas used his jab to outland Sultan 234-147 in total punches, according to CompuBox.
The fight between Ancajas and Sultan is the first world title fight contested between two Filipinos since Pancho Villa defeated Clever Sencio to retain the world flyweight title in 1925. The loss snapped Sultan?s five-fight win streak, which includes wins over John Riel Casimero and Sonny Boy Jaro.
The IBF champion has been fighting on ESPN in three of his last four fights as a member of Manny Pacquiao?s MP Promotions and now with Top Rank. Ancajas rose to prominence with a decisive TKO win over Teiru Kinoshita on the co-main event of Pacquiao?s fight against Jeff Horn last year and has since then retained his title with TKO wins over Jamie Conlan and Israel Gonzalez before defeating Sultan.
With the win over Sultan, Ancajas is now free to pursue a unification bout against WBA champion Kal Yafai, who also retained his world title on the co-main event with a seventh-round stoppage win over David Carmona.