By Chris Williams: Undefeated #4 IBF contender Fernando Martinez (14-0, 8 KOs) dominated IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas (32-2-2, 22 KOs), defeating him by one-sided 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on Showtime at the Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
The 30-year-old ‘Pretty Boy’ Ancajas saw his six-year reign as the IBF 115-lb champion end at the hands of the tough 2016 Olympian Martinez, who was on another level than the Filpino slugger.
Martinez took the fight to Ancajas, outworking him in every round, and swelling up his eyes with his nonstop punches. By the later rounds, Ancajas looked battered & beaten and had nothing left to keep the Argentinian off of him.
The scores were 117-111, 118-110, and 118-110. Chris Williams had it 118-110 as well.
With this fight being a voluntary defense for Ancajas, now the question is whether he uses the rematch clause he had in his contract or not.
Considering how one-sided tonight’s fight was, Ancajas shouldn’t activate the rematch clause because his chances of winning a second fight are slim.
The well-schooled Argentinian 2016 Olympian Martinez is a better all-around fighter, and he’ll likely beat Ancajas just as bad if not worse in the rematch.
The pressure and high punch output from Fernando Martinez was always going to be too much for Ancajas, as he can’t handle those types of fighters.
You can argue the only reason Ancajas held onto his IBF super flyweight title from 2016 until tonight is because he didn’t tangle with Naoya Inoue, Juan Estrada, Srisaket Sor Rungivisai, Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, or Carlos Cuadras.
It’s fair to say that if Ancajas had fought ANY of those fighters in the last six years, his title run would have ended abruptly.
Ancajas is still an excellent fighter, but he needs to target a different champion. If he were to go after WBC super flyweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez or WBO champion Kazuto Ioka, he’d have a chance of winning. But against Fernando Martinez or Juan Francisco Estrada, his chances of victory are slim.
From the way it looks, Ancajas is going to execute his rematch clause to run it back against Martinez. It’s too bad because Martinez would likely prefer to face Juan Estrada, Bam Rodriguez, or Chocolatito than facing Ancajas again.