Jerwin Ancajas will enter his next fight with a mandatory title defense waiting in the balance.
An agreed-upon fight between Italy’s Mohammed Obbadi and Philippines’ Jade ‘Hurricane’ Bornea has been approved by the International Boxing Federation (IBF) as a final eliminator to the IBF junior bantamweight title. The bout will take place January 14 in Monterrey, Mexico, with the winner to become the number-one contender to Anjacas, who is already scheduled for a voluntary title defense on February 5 or February 19 in the United States.
“The IBF has granted formal sanction approval for the IBF Jr. Bantamweight Eliminator for (number one) between Mohammade Obbadi and Jade Bornea,” Carlos Ortiz, chairman of the IBF Championship Committee stated in an official letter to all parties, a copy of which has been obtained by BoxingScene.com.
Obbadi (22-1, 13KOs) will fight outside of Europe for the first time and just the second time outside of his adopted home country. The 28-year-old Moroccan—now based in Toscana, Italy—is currently the number-three ranked contender according to the IBF rankings. The lofty ranking comes despite boasting an extremely thin resume.
The lone opponent of note also represents Obbadi’s lone career defeat, an October 2017 seventh-round stoppage to Cristofer Rosales who went on to win the WBC flyweight title just six month later. Obbadi has since won nine in a row, including a six-round decision over Daniel Mendoza (11-4 at the time; now 11-13) in December 2019 in Barcelona.
Just one fight has come since the pandemic for Obbadi, a six-round points win over Joel Sanchez (4-15-1 at the time; now 5-27-1) this past April in Mlian. He steps well up in class for his next assignment.
Bornea (16-0, 10KOs) has fought just one time before outside of his home country, though the moment represents his best win to date.
The 26-year-old from General Santos City outlasted Ernesto Delgadillo to claim a ten-round, split decision win in their January 2020 battle of unbeaten junior bantamweights in Toppenish, Washington. All 14 prior bouts took place in his native Philippines, where he returned for his lone fight since the pandemic—a ten-round points win over countryman Roland Jay Biendima this past April 30 in General Santos City.
The approved junior bantamweight title eliminator comes on the heels of Ancajas already securing a voluntary title defense in lieu of losing a scheduled title unification bout.
The 29-year-old southpaw from Panabo City, Philippines was previously due to face four-division and reigning WBO junior bantamweight titlist Kazuto Ioka atop a New Year’s Eve show at Ota-City Gymnasium in Tokyo. Ancajas was ultimately forced to withdraw from the event earlier this month due to the current travel restrictions in Japan, which closed its borders to foreign travelers beginning November 30 to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant.
Japan’s Ioka will move forward with the event, as he now faces countryman Ryoji Fukunaga this Friday. Ancajas similarly moved forward with his career, as he will next face unbeaten Argentinean contender Fernando Daniel Martinez (13-0, 8KOs).
By then, Ancajas will have learned his likely next foe as the IBF is likely to order a mandatory title fight soon thereafter.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox