Future gets brighter for Ancajas under new promoter–gibbons

MORE lucrative fights will open up for Jerwin Ancajas under new promotion Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) of Al Haymon if he defends his International Boxing Federation (IBF) super flyweight belt against mandatory challenger Jonathan Javier Rodriguez of Mexico on April 10 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.

Big Boss Cement president and chief company innovator Engineer Gilbert Cruz and international matchmaker Sean Gibbons announced Ancajas’s new partnership with PBC in an online press conference on Monday.

Gibbons said the new partnership would provide Ancajas the opportunity to fight former world champion Srisaket Sur Rungvisai of Thailand, Roman Gonzalez of Nicaragua and unified world champion Juan Francisco Estrada also of Mexico.

“Sky’s the limit for Jerwin [Ancajas] under PBC,” said Gibbons, adding that parting ways with Top Rank of Bob Arum was “mutual and fine for both parties.”

“We’re still good with Top Rank, we’re still good with Bob Arum, but this opportunity came up to open up things, Gibbons said. “There was no issue on Top Rank, it’s just the pandemic.”

Rungvisai is sporting a 50-5-1 win-loss-draw record with 43 knockouts while Gonzales, also a former world champion, holds a 50-3 record with 43 knockouts.

World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association super flyweight titlist Estrada sports a 42-3 record with 28 knockouts.

But Gibbons, who heads Senator Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions, warned Ancajas (32-1-2 with 22 knockouts) about his ninth title-defense.

“It’s going to be an explosive type of Filipinomexican rivalry just like Manny Pacquiao’s fights with Mexican warriors,” he said.

Ancajas’s trainer and manager Joven Jimenez said his ward is 90 percent to 95 percent ready for the fight.

Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo, who will be fighting Houston native Pablo Cruz in a non-title featherweight bout as one of the undercards, also graced the online news conference.