I was expecting an action packed super flyweight title fight between two proud Pinoy boxers, but instead I got a sparring session where the challenger was trying to land bombs while the IBF champion carried his countrymen to the decision.
Jerwin Ancajas could have knocked out Jonas Sultan, but he pulled his punches in the fight and instead decided just to go the distance on a wide points win.
I am disappointed in this. As a Filipino I was telling my co-workers to tune into ESPN+ because this will be a real war between two exciting smaller weight Pinoys, instead it turned out to be a technical dud.
Mexican boxers fight each other all the time, and have no issue with going to war in a title fight.
Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera had three amazing battles. They went toe to toe with vicious intent and left it all in the ring, both are Mexican and neither showed restraint just because they were both from the same country.
I noticed Jerwin is promoted by Manny Pacquiao, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Pacquiao told him “Boxing is not for killing” and advised him to go easy on his fellow Filipino pugilist.
If Filipinos want to be taken seriously in boxing they cannot show favoritism or restraint in fights against other Filipinos. This is a professional sport and you are required to fight to win and not carry guys just because you feel like it. People pay money to see an entertaining fight not a spar session.
In the UFC and in MMA you have Brazilians fighting each other all the time, they are submitting and knocking each other out because they are true warriors who feel honor in combat. After the fight they will hug and show a sign of respect to their fellow Brazilian.
I hate to say it but it seemed like Ancajas showed pity to the smaller Sultan, if you don’t believe it watch the fight over again. Jerwin knew he could take the punches of the smaller Cebuano and decided just to use punches at half energy.
Watch Jerwin’s other fights against non-Filipinos he really unloads hell on his opponents and goes for the KO, but with the smaller Sultan he controlled himself and just boxed and moved and didn’t really put much weight into his shots.
There is no honor in that. The honor in combative sports is to fight each other with the intention to win at all cost, if I were Sultan, I would be pissed that Jerwin went easy on me while I tried to go for the KO.
Whatever happened to Manny Pacquiao’s saying “Knock me out and you win” I guess that only applies to foreign fighters.
If Ancajas didn’t carry Sultan and that was his real performance, that Thailand WBC champ Srisaket Sor Rungvisai will surely beat him by KO. You cannot play around with a hard hitting puncher like Rungvisai, he will show no pity on you.
If Ancajas wants to be a star in boxing he should try to finish every fight by KO because that is what the paying fight fan wants to see.
