Jerwin Ancajas wants Srisaket Sor Rungvisai unification fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams: IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas (30-1-2, 20 KOs) is ready for a unification fight against WBC champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (47-4-1, 41 KOs).

Ancajas joined Rungvisai inside the ring after his 12 round unanimous decision win over Iran Diaz last Saturday night. The two of them are expected to meet each other soon. How soon will be up to their management as well as them.

Ancajas looks a little green to be fighting Rungvisai at this point in his career. The timing for the 26-year-old Ancajas to be going to after a fight against the hard-hitting Rungvisai isn’t a good one. Ancajas needs to think it through carefully before he sets the wheels in motion to fight Rungvisai because it could end badly for him.

Ancajas fought to a 12 round draw in his last fight against Alejandro Santiago Barrios (16-2-5, 7 KOs) last month on September 28 in Oakland, California. Ancajas deserved a loss in that fight in the eyes of a lot of people that saw the fight. Progressing from a controversial draw to a fight against Rungvisai, 31, is probably not the best thing for Ancajas to be doing right now unless he wants to get beaten.

“He wants a signature fight. He watched the champ from ringside Saturday night and loves the fight,” Ancajas’s agent Sean Gibbons said to Fightnews.com. ”Boxing is about styles and this fight is perfect for Jerwin. Someone is getting knocked out!”

A better fight for Ancajas right now would be for him to fight Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, Khalid Yafai, Juan Francisco Estrada or Donnie Nietes. Those are good preliminary opponents for Ancajas to fight before he takes on a talented fighter like Rungvisai. It’s not a good deal that Ancajas couldn’t beat #14 Barrios. When you’re held to a draw by a fighter that is barely ranked in the top 15, it shows that you’re not ready for the best year. There’s nothing wrong with Ancajas not being ready for Rungvisai. If you look at Rungvisai’s own career. When he was 27, he lost to Carlos Cuadras by an eight round technical decision. If you put Cuadras in with Rungvisai right now, the fight likely wouldn’t be competitive at all. Rungvisai has improved measurably, whereas Cuadras has gone downhill and isn’t the fighter that he was in 2014.

“I liked what I saw, he is my style, I would be the matador versus the bull,” Ancajas said about Rungvisai. “He comes right at you and wants to trade big punches…Rungvisai is the perfect fight for me.”

When the Rungvisai-Ancajas fight gets made in the near future, Ancajas will have the opportunity to show that Rungvisai’s style’s style is perfect for him as he says. For now, it’s just wishful thinking on Ancajas’s part in saying that Rungvisai is the perfect opponent for him. I don’t think he is. Rungvisai might be the perfect storm for Ancajas, and his promoter’s at Top Rank should know that and warn him away.

Rungvisai still needs to find a network to have his fights televised in the U.S. He was fighting on HBO, but that’s not going to be happening after 2018. HBO is getting out of boxing, and all the fighters that were televised on that network are looking around for other platforms to fight. Rungvisai will get scooped up by one of the networks soon. If he ends up on Showtime or DAZN, it could be difficult to setup a fight between him and Ancajas, who fights on ESPN.