Jerwin Ancajas retains IBF world title by split draw in Oakland

MANILA- His performance wasn't exactly impressive, but reigning IBF world super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas is coming home with the belt following a split draw in his sixth title defense against Alejandro Santiago Barrios, Friday night (Saturday morning PHL time) at Oracle Arena in Oakland.

After gauging each other in the opening round, both fighters stepped on the gas in round two by throwing hard punches at each other. Ancajas' timing and accuracy was seemingly off in the first half of the fight, yet still managed to land the cleaner punches between the two.

In round 4, Barrios landed a huge right hand that highlighted the hardest punch of the bout thus far. Ancajas was clinical in his approach in the middle rounds as he backpedalled while throwing his jab, left straight and counter shots.

After successfully outboxing his foe, Ancajas was baited to a brawl by Barrios in the final seconds of round 9 that saw both fighters land hard punches of their own. Barrios upped the tempo in the last two rounds, while Ancajas tried to weather the storm by moving and countering the Mexican challenger.

The judges scored the fight 118-110 for Barrios, 116-112 for Ancajas and 114-114, ending the twelve-round championship bout in a split draw. The result moved Ancajas' record to 30-1-2 (20KOs) while Barrios shifted to 16-2-5 (7KOs). —LBG, GMA News