Despite blaming his poor performance on a botched weight cut and planning a move to 118, former IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas elected to invoke his rematch clause for a shot at revenge against Fernando Martinez. ESPN’s Renato Bermudez reports that the pair will square off on October 8th in Los Angeles.
Why they felt the need to space things out by over seven months is beyond me, but I’m going to go ahead and assume Sean Gibbons is at fault somehow.
Ancajas (33-2-2, 22 KO), two months removed from a planned unification with Kazuto Ioka that fell apart due to COVID-related travel restrictions, was a decent-sized favorite over unproven former Olympian Martinez (14-0, 8 KO). “Pumita” proved up to the task, out-slugging “Pretty Boy” in a hugely entertaining but largely one-sided war.
Ancajas claimed afterwards that his legs started cramping in the second round and that he was in pure survival mode from the fourth on, which is usually a sign that you need to stop sweating yourself to death, but here we are. Either he’s sure he’s got the cut down this time, he’s willing to risk it to avoid having to climb the ranks at 118, or he really thinks he’s got Martinez’s number.
Guess we’ll find out.