Junior bantamweight world titleholder Jerwin Ancajas and mandatory challenger Jonas Sultan will meet in a rare all-Filipino title fight on May 26.
Ancajas advisor Sean Gibbons told ESPN on Monday night that the fight was made, and Top Rank, which promotes Ancajas, confirmed that the bout was set.
The fight is likely to take place in Las Vegas, with The Cosmopolitan a possible location, Gibbons said. It will be the main event of a card that's likely to stream live as part of the Top Rank on ESPN series of shows on the ESPN+ subscription streaming service scheduled to launch on April 12.
"May 26 in Las Vegas will be a real coming-out party for IBF champion Jerwin Ancajas," Gibbons said. "Jerwin will headline his first [ESPN event] and fight in first fight in Las Vegas like his idol Manny Pacquiao [did so many times]. Jerwin is facing his countryman Jonas Sultan, but everyone will see on May 26 what I have had the pleasure of seeing, and that is there is only one Filipino IBF 115-pound champion, and that is Jerwin Ancajas."
According to numerous Filipino media reports, there has not been a world title fight between fighters from the Philippines since then-flyweight world champion Pancho Villa, a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, retained his title by unanimous 15-round decision against countryman Clever Sencio on May 2, 1925, in Manila.
Ancajas (29-1-1, 20 KOs), a 26-year-old southpaw, will be making his fourth title defense. He is coming off a dominant 10th-round knockout of Israel Gonzalez on Feb. 3 in Corpus Christi, Texas, on a Top Rank on ESPN undercard. That fight was Ancajas' American debut.
Sultan (14-3, 9 KOs), 26, has won five fights in a row including victories against former world titleholders Sonny Boy Jaro and John Riel Casimero in his last two bouts of 2017. A unanimous decision victory against Casimero in September came in a title elimination fight to earn the shot at Ancajas.
Initially, the fight was supposed to take place on April 14 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on the undercard of the fight between welterweight world titleholder Jeff Horn and 2017 ESPN.com fighter of the year Terence Crawford. However, Top Rank had to find a new date when that fight was postponed until June 9 at the MGM Grand because Crawford suffered a right-hand injury.