Exactly a month before he makes his US debut, Ancajas, the reigning International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-flyweight titlist, has yet to see a decent video of his Mexican challenger Israel Gonzalez.
“I have been looking for his fights on YouTube but all I saw was a training session while he was doing the (punch) mitts and a little sparring session,” Ancajas said in Filipino from his training headquarters in Magallanes, Cavite.
A search on YouTube produced one.
But it was probably shot by somebody from the crowd that most of the time, his hand was shaking and it was difficult to focus on the action without complaining of dizziness.
The fight was against Maurico Fuentes of Colombia and it didn’t show much.
So, Ancajas was indeed right and he has a couple of weeks to remedy the problem as he is set to fly to Los Angeles on Jan. 25 for his Feb. 3 fourth defense of the IBF 115-lb crown at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Still, Ancajas is not letting his guard down.
“From what I saw (during his mitts session), he (Gonzalez) perfectly throw his punches and that means he is well-taught,” said Ancajas, one of just two Filipino world champions at the moment apart from Donnie Nietes.
Apparently, while just about anyone agrees that everything can be found online, that’s not the case with Ancajas’ opponent.
“We’ll try to reach out and get a video of Gonzalez because you have to know how your rival fights. That’s important,” added Ancajas.
Even in this day and age – and in Ancajas’ case – not everything is just one click away.
Courtesy of Nick Giongco, Manila Bulletin. Follow Nick on Twitter @NickSpeaks
