FRESNO, Calif. -- It wasn't always pretty, but Jerwin Ancajas got his mandatory obligation out of the way with a clear-cut victory over Jonas Sultan. The fans at the Save Mart Center were restless, often raining in boos during the rounds and cheering wildly for the ring card girls when the fighters were seated in their corners.
Unlike in the co-feature, where the combative David Carmona brought out the best in WBA junior bantamweight titleholder Kal Yafai, Sultan's herky-jerky awkwardness clashed with Ancajas' southpaw, technically proficient style to bring out the worst in each other.
Whereas the ultra-aggressive Irishman Jamie Conlan was throwing punches on his way to the canvas, and Israel Gonzalez gambled continuously and ate right hooks, Sultan couldn't find his way to the inside to make it interesting. And when he did get inside, the two butted heads, which made Ancajas more inclined to fight from a distance.
Boxing is about styles, and as Ancajas' matchmaker put it, "the styles sucked."
Ancajas was content to just get the win and look good later in the first card Top Rank had broadcasted exclusively on the ESPN+ app in the United States, which was also available in the Philippines through ESPN5. He controlled the fight throughout with his razor-sharp jab, set up counters with his deft foot movement and worked the body diligently.
Ancajas rarely got the worst of exchanges, winning 11 out of 12 rounds on two cards and nine on the third, proving himself to be the best 115-pounder in his country at the moment, if not the world.
"I believe this was my best performance because I was able to use my amateur experience to adjust to the fight plan of my opponent," said Ancajas (30-1-1, 20 knockouts), who retained his IBF super flyweight belt for the fifth time in what was the first Filipino vs. Filipino world title fight in 93 years.
It was a technical masterpiece by Ancajas, but just as watching Rembrandt paint a portrait wouldn't prove crowd-friendly, so too was the reaction from the Central Valley locals.
Head trainer Joven Jimenez also saw lots of room for improvement for his fighter, saying that their training had been thrown off when the fight was rescheduled from April 14 due to the postponement of the original main event of Jeff Horn vs. Terence Crawford after Crawford suffered an injury. By the time the Ancajas-Sultan fight was moved to its own card in Fresno, Jimenez said Ancajas had already peaked in training and needed to adjust.
"Maybe our training program is not really perfect because I saw he was very slow. He's got the stamina but he's very slow," said Jimenez, who wants to give Ancajas a month to rest after he had been training for several months.
Both titleholders had declined to discuss a unification bout until they had settled their business on Saturday night. Regarding unification with Yafai, Gibbons said "we're definitely open to fight the guy," but he wouldn't lose sleep if it wasn't next.
"We're still a work in progress, even though he's a champ," said Gibbons.
"I explained to Bob (Arum), 'We're done with the mandatory, let's bring a tough, aggressive fighter who wants to fight and doesn't lead with his head.' Bob loved the idea."
Gibbons says the plan is to bring Ancajas back in September or October, preferably in a Filipino-dense area of California like Daly City or San Jose, "the Filipino real hardcore market," outside of Los Angeles where they'd have more competition for the public's attention.
If Gibbons had his druthers, he'd have Ancajas close the year out with against an opponent with an exciting style, then try to make a fight with the winner of the rematch between WBC junior bantamweight titleholder Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, the highest profile champion at 115 pounds, and Juan Francisco Estrada -- a fight which is expected to take place on an HBO "SuperFly 3" card in September.
"Those are the biggest fights for Jerwin. If we fight another time this year and then 2019 we just see what rolls in," said Gibbons.
Ancajas, as reserved in victory as he was before, deferred to his braintrust about future plans.
"Whatever my manager and promoter will give me I'm fine with," said Ancajas.
Yafai, who scored four knockdowns in a seventh-round stoppage victory in a non-title fight after Carmona blew the weigh-in by 3.5 pounds, said he caught a few of the middle rounds between Ancajas and Sultan. Though he says the main event wasn't a thriller, he said he'd seen Ancajas look better previously and doesn't judge him from that one fight. He says the Ancajas fight is one he's confident his team would accept if it was on the table.
"Why not me?" said Yafai, when asked about Ancajas' team considering other options besides him.
"Obviously fights don't happen unless my side and his side come to an agreement, and I'm sure my side would be happy to take the fight. If his side doesn't want to take the fight, that's their problem."
Yafai's promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing had good reason to be happy after his fighter proved he could entertain as well as box, saying that he "stole the show." He says his fighter wants to merge the belts together, but would otherwise be happy facing former pound-for-pound boss Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez, who had been the biggest star of the lower weights before suffering back-to-back losses to Sor Rungvisai.
"When you look at the champions I think Ancajas is probably not the easiest but the easiest to do a deal with to make that fight," said Hearn. "It's definitely on the horizon and quite possibly next."
The fourth major title, the WBO belt vacated by Naoya Inoue when he went up to bantamweight, looks likely to be contested for between former three-division champion Donnie Nietes (an ALA Gym stablemate of Sultan) and Aston Palicte on August 18, providing a second all-Filipino world title fight after nearly a century without one.
Talks of future fights take a backseat for Ancajas now. A hoops mega fan, he's got a pair of Game 7s to look forward to in the Warriors-Rockets and Cavaliers-Celtics NBA conference finals, and he's also got a partner back in Cavite, Philippines who is five months pregnant with their third child and first daughter.
"Another added member to the family, another blessing," said Ancajas. "I want to keep pushing myself to be better for my kids, for their future."