Weight, foe fail to fluster champ

Jerwin Ancajas weighs 115.8 pounds after Thursday morning’s workout.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS— There was nothing that could rattle Jerwin Ancajas Thursday. Not an added pound less than 24 hours before the official weigh-in. Not an opponent who tried to employ mind games during a stare down.

With the clock fast ticking down to fight night, Ancajas remained confident that Israel Gonzalez’s won’t knock the crown off his head.

“His eyes were a reflection of his determination to clinch my crown,” said the reigning IBF junior bantamweight king. “But it’s not for the taking.”

Ancajas and Gonzalez square off Saturday night (Sunday in Manila) here but the Mexican made his intent clear during the stare down that capped their press conference.

“He got too close and it looked like he wanted to eat me,” said Ancajas in Filipino. “He’s trying to play mind games, but I didn’t bite. He’s just trying to psyche me out.

“I have Filipino pride; we’ll know who’s the better man in the ring,” added Ancajas, who will make his fourth defense of the 115-pound crown at the 10,000-seater American Bank Center.

First, though, he has to make weight. Just under a pound overweight two days before Friday’s weigh-in, Ancajas was two over Thursday. But his camp wasn’t alarmed.

“It’s normal for Jerwin,” said trainer Joven Jimenez. “He can shed two, four or even five pounds in one solid training session” because he perspires a lot.

The Ancajas camp revealed a makeshift weapon just in case the pounds stubbornly hang on to Ancajas’ frame leading the weigh-in: An improvised sauna fashioned out of the thick hotel sheets and pillows.

After Thursday’s training session, Ancajas was under the beddings to drip off some of his gained weight.

Gonzalez said Wednesday that he and his trainer Adalberto Sanchez have thoroughly studied videos of Ancajas’ last few fights and hope to pounce on some flaws they noticed.