Ancajas following in Pacquiao’s footsteps

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow:

Jerwin Ancajas (28-1-1, 19 KOs) is slowly being built into the next star for Top Rank, and following in the footsteps of Filipino star Manny Pacquiao. There’s a lot of pressure on the 25-year-old Ancajas to measure up to the former 8 division world champion Pacquiao, who co-promotes him.

Ancajas will be fighting for the first time in the United States on February 3 in defending his IBF super flyweight title against Israel Gonzalez (28-1, 8 KOs) in a fight televised on ESPN. Ancajas-Gonzalez will be looking to steal the show from WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez in his main event fight against Habib Ahmed.

Ramirez is not the slugger that Ancajas is, so he’s going to have a tough time being the star of the show. This night could turn out to be the coming out party for Ancajas with him showing the casual boxing fans what a talent he is.

The only thing bad about the card is the main event fight not being big enough to attract a large audience. Ramirez isn’t a huge name yet, and his promoters at Top Rank selected a totally unknown opponent in Habib to match him again. It would be interesting to know why Top Rank is matching Ramirez against an obscure fighter like Habib. They want to turn him into a star, but they’re not going to do it that way.

“I feel very pressured that I will follow in the footsteps of Sir. Manny, we all know that it will take years before anyone can follow Sir Manny’s footsteps,” said Ancajas to Rappler.com. “I do whatever I can to get even close to Manny’s level.”

Only 1 fighter has gone the distance with Ancajas in the last 5 years, and that’s McJoe Arroyo. That’s a good fighter. You can’t blame Ancajas for not knocking him out. Ancajas has recent stoppage wins over Jamie Conlan and Teiru Kinoshita. He’s looked really good.

Ancajas was hoping he could get a unification fight against WBO super flyweight champion Naoya Inoue. That’s not going to happen now, as Inoue is moving up to bantamweight after he defends his WBO title for the last time this Saturday night against Yoan Boyeaux in Japan. That doesn’t mean that Ancajas can’t one day face Inoue at bantamweight, but it’ll require that he move up in weight to face the popular Japanese fighter.

“Inoue is the number one, he is a dream opponent because he is the best,” said Ancajas.

Ancaja’s promoter Bob Arum sees a lot of things in common between him and Pacquiao. Both guys are southpaws, and both hit with a lot of power. Pacquiao is faster than Ancajas, even now. Pacquiao is also fighting many divisions above Ancajas in the welterweight division.

Style-wise, the difference between Ancajas and Pacquiao come down to these areas:

• Jab – Ancajas uses his right jab a lot more than Pacquiao has during his career. Ancajas likes to set up his power shots first by using his jab. Pacquiao has never been interested in using his jab

• Speed – Pacquiao is the much faster of the two fighters. Ancajas doesn’t have that kind of speed of hand or foot

• Body punching – Ancajas is better body puncher than Pacquiao. Ancajas likes to target his opponent’s body to score knockouts

• Power – Pacquiao is the harder puncher, but only because he’s much heavier. Ancajas is a bigger puncher for his weight class than Pacquiao is at welterweight

“I see a lot of similarities to his co-promoter Manny Pacquiao,” said Arum to Rappler.com about Ancajas. “Jerwin has the killer instinct inside the ring, and he is a great finisher. Just look at his record. Jerwin has only gone the distance once in his last 14 fights.”

If Arum can turn Ancajas into his net next star in his Top Rank stable, it’ll be a huge accomplishment.

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