By Jim Dower: Making his first defense of his IBF World super flyweight title, champion Jerwin “Pretty Boy” Ancajas (26-1-1, 17 KOs) defeated #15 IBF fringe contender Jose Alfredo Rodriguez (35-5, 19 KOs) by a 7th round stoppage on Sunday night at the Cotai Arena in Macao, China.
The fight was stopped after round 7 due to the 27-year-old Rodriguez suffering a right shoulder injury that prevented him from continuing. Rodriguez looked angry at the stoppage, but he wasn’t putting up much of a fight anyway. It was a good thing for Rodriguez the fight was halted when it was because the 25-year-old southpaw Ancajas was hitting him at will in the last two rounds, and he was going to get stopped sooner or later.
Rodriguez was an unlikely choice for an opponent for champion Ancajas, because he came into the fight having lost 4 out of his last 8 fights. You don’t see that too much for a fighter with a record like that getting a title shot.
Ancajas’s management were playing it safe with him by putting him in with Rodriguez rather than one of the more difficult contenders in the division. That’s not to say that Ancajas couldn’t win, because he would be a handful for any top contender in the super flyweight division, including Carlos Cuadras.
The 5’6”Ancajas used his three-inch height advantage and long jab to control round 1 against the 5’3” Rodriguez. Ancajas moved around the ring, jabbing and keeping clear of the attacks of Rodriguez.
There was very little resistance from Rodriguez, as he didn’t have the reach or the foot speed to close the distance to land much of anything. The few punches that Rodriguez did land in round 1 came after he had to walk through a lot of withering fire to land them.
Rodriguez connected with a big left hook to the chin of Ancajas in the 2nd round. Other than that one punch that landed for Rodriguez, he mostly spent the round on the receiving end of Ancajas jabs and power shots. It was a one-sided round for Ancajas.
Rodriguez started to put more pressure on Ancajas in the 6th round. He was far behind in the fight, and looked to be desperate to make up ground. It wasn’t going to work though, as Ancajas continued to move and pour in jabs and left hands to the head.
Rodriguez tried his best to avoid getting hit, but he couldn’t. Ancajas had too much size on him, and he had him at his mercy due to Rodriguez being desperate to rally. He had no choice but to apply a lot of pressure on Ancajas.