Arroyo Drops IBF 115 Pound Title in Manila

Arroyo Drops IBF 115 Pound Title – Friday evening in the Philippines saw a big 11-fight boxing card held at the Marine Hall in Taguig City that featured the IBF World super flyweight fight between titleholder McJoe Arroyo (17-0) and Jerwin Ancajas (24-1-1).

Puerto Rico’s Arroyo was on the road for this fight, which was his first title defense. He won the vacant IBF belt this past July with a technical decision over previously undefeated Arthur Villanueva (27-0). Ancajas came into the bout riding an 11-fight winning streak, but Arroyo represented his first truly international competition.

The fight started out relatively even in this match-up between two southpaws. Arroyo was expected to be the more technical fighter, but Ancajas proved that he could keep it close in the early going. In the sixth round, Ancajas broke through with a series of punches that hurt Arroyo. The hometown fighter troubled Arroyo with his superior reach and seemingly landed the harder punches.

Arroyo went down in round seven and again in round nine, though his second visit to the canvas was ruled a slip. Heading into the final rounds, it appeared that Ancajas had the fight in hand, but Arroyo found a second wind.  He put forth a spirited effort to close the fight strong, but continued to have trouble reaching his lanky, opponent. After the twelve rounds, the judges came back with scores of 118-109, 117-110 and 115-112 in favor of Ancajas.

The title change is the second major world title at 115 lbs to change hands this week, as Wednesday, August 31st saw Panama’s Luis “El Nica” Concepcion defeat WBA champion Kohei Kono, pulling off the upset on the road in Tokyo. On Sunday, the WBO version of the world title will be contested in Tokyo between champion Naoya Inoue (10-0) and Karoon Jarupianlerd (38-7-1) and then on September 10th, the Forum in Inglewood, California will host undefeated WBC world titleholder Carlos Cuadras (35-0-1) as he defends his belt against the #1 pound for pound fighter in the world today, Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (45-0).

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