Ancajas stays focused on title defense despite delays

FILE – Jerwin Ancajas (C) of the Philippines celebrates with his team after defeating Ryuichi Funai of Japan in their 12-round Super Flyweight IBF World Title fight in Stockton, California on May 4, 2019. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — The old adage “third time’s the charm” better be true for Jerwin Ancajas.

Ancajas hasn’t fought since December of 2019 when he stopped Miguel Gonzalez in six rounds but the IBF super flyweight champion wasn’t even supposed to defend his title against the Chilean pugilist.

Ancajas (32-1-2, 22 knockouts) was set to defend his 115-pound title against Jonathan Rodriguez (21-1, 15 KOs) on Nov. 2 in Carson, California but that bout was postponed after the Mexican challenger dealt with visa issues.

The fight was then rescheduled for April 11 but it was also put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then came another blow, this time, it’s Ancajas who encountered problems with his visa.

Ancajas was set to have his interview with the United States embassy but with Metro Manila back under modified enhance community quarantine, the 28-year-old southpaw will have to wait for a little more if he wants to make it into the fight which is now penciled for September.

“My visa expired in December and I still haven’t renewed it because when it was time for my interview the lockdown was imposed,” said Ancajas in Filipino in a Zoom interview with Inquirer. “I still continued training and my team and I never relaxed, we’re still working.”

Although his title defense has been pushed back more times than he would’ve hoped, Ancajas said that he’s not frustrated one bit.

Ancajas said experiencing such difficulties is part of a professional boxer’s career and just like in the fight itself, he just has to roll with the punches.

“For me, I’m used to it because that’s boxing. Sometime’s there are unforeseen circumstances and I’ve experienced that when I was just starting in my career,” said Ancajas.

“We’re professional boxers, so my advice to the younger ones is don’t get frustrated when your fight didn’t push through.”

Ancajas said this wasn’t the first time that a fight wasn’t able to push through in time as it also happened in his title bout against McJoe Arroyo in 2016.

Although it happened in Taguig, Ancajas said that it took nearly a year for the bout to get finalized.

“It already happened before and it was my title fight against McJoe, that took nearly a year. So I’m pretty much used to it.”