Games and Amusement Board chief rues all-Filipino title showdown

MANILA, Philippines — It was with a heavy heart that Games and Amusement Board (GAB) chairman Baham Mitra gave his stamp of approval on the all-Filipino world title fight between Jerwin Ancajas and Jonas Sultan.

“Admittedly, I talked to both camps to try to avoid each other,” Mitra, former governor and three-term congressman from Palawan, told a group of scribes Wednesday evening.

Ancajas, the IBF super-flyweight champion from Davao del Norte, will try to defend his crown for the fourth time. Unfortunately, it will be against Sultan, who hails from Cebu.

It’s a rare sight for two Filipinos slugging it out for a world title, not since Hall of Famer Pancho Villa defended his world flyweight crown against Clever Sencio in 1925 in Manila.

“It’s not very often that you have two Filipinos fighting for one world title. It’s somehow disheartening,” said Mitra, 48, ahead of the title clash scheduled on May 26 in Las Vegas.

“I wish one of them had gone to the WBO or WBC,” he said.

Mitra, who became GAB chairman in 2016, said he will skip watching the fight live.

“I’m not going to Las Vegas to watch the fight,” he said, adding that while he had thoughts of preventing the fight from happening, he knew there was no other choice.

“Sultan is the number one contender in the IBF. There was an option of Ancajas paying Sultan a step-aside fee ($20,000) but Ancajas said it wouldn’t be nice,” said Mitra.

“The fight is set. We have no choice. We cannot avoid it,” said the youngest son of the late House Speaker Ramon Mitra.

Mitra, however, is certain that the coming title fight will bring out the best in both Ancajas and Sultan.

“What’s good here is that the title will remain in the hands of a Filipino,” said the chief of the government agency that supervises all professional sports in the country.