Moving forward

Jerwin Ancajas is not seeking a rematch to settle the score against feisty Mexican Alejandro Barrios-Santiago.

Instead, he’s looking at a high-stakes, high-yield unification encounter with Thai Sor Rungvisai for his next fight.

Ancajas camp said they are inclined to pursue the fight against the Thai WBC belt holder, who will go up against Iran Diaz of Mexico next month also in the United States.

Already, Manny Pacquiao’s former promoter Top Rank vowed to help the 26-year-old Filipino secure the fight, which is expected to be the biggest outing for the Panabo, Davao, native.

The prospects of that match could have been even more lucrative had Ancajas come up with a little more flair and fight  against Santiago Friday night at Oracle Arena.

Clearly, Ancajas failed to make good use of his advantage in height and boxing techniques as he found Santiago hard to read and settled for a disappointing split draw.

The Filipino retained his IBF junior bantamweight championship but failed to convince everyone he’s up for boxing’s biggest stage.

“Everyone saw the fight, and everyone saw that I won the fight clearly,” said the visibly-upset Santiago after the decision was read.

He was all out in the last three rounds, taking the fight to the Filipino champ’s doorstep by hammering crisp counter punches and relying on large-scale punch production.

Judge Marshall Walker ruled it for Santiago 118-111, Michael Tate for Ancajas 116-112, and Chris Watson saw it a draw 114-114.

Ancajas admitted that he couldn’t implement his game plan against the rugged, staccato style of Santiago.

“My timing was a little off, he was a little awkward,” said Ancajas in Filipino. “It was a good, entertaining fight. I felt like I pressed and did enough to win.”

Ancajas is tapering off after a busy year, when he knocked out Israel Gonzalez in February before carving out a decision over compatriot Jonas Sultan in May.

In the comainer, IBF super middleweight champ Jose Uzcategui of Tijuana scored a unanimous decision win over Argentina’s Ezequiel Maderna in non-title light heavyweight bout.

Super bantamweight Genesis Servania of the Philippines knocked out Tijuana’s Carlos Carlson 44 seconds into fourth round, improving his record to 32-1, 15KOs.