By: Sean Crose
Boxing returned to Showtime on Saturday night when the cable network broadcast live a game from Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas starring Chris “PrimeTime” Colbert versus Hector Garcia. First, however, IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas, 33-1-2, beat Fernando Martinez, 13-0, in a scheduled 12th round.
Challenger Martinez used an effective jab and left hook on the first attempt. Martinez continued to try to assert himself in the second half. The third round saw the champion’s trades with Martinez in a shootout. Ancajas landed hard and clean in the fourth round, effectively regaining the tempo of the game from Martinez. By season five, Martinez had ramped up his ferocity, turning and landing furiously at his man. Still the Ancajas returned good fire later in the round.
The sixth was an all-out war, with warriors trading leather at a furious pace. Martinez’s glove touched the fabric at one point, although the referee deemed it a slip. Martinez dismembered in season seven. Both men fought hard in season eight, although Martinez’s relentless results may have tilted in his favor. By the ninth minute, it looked like Martinez’s shots could (“maybe” being the word here) start damaging the defending champions.
Things took a turn for the worse in the tenth, as it started to be worth wondering how many clean headers Ancajas could take. However, the man continued to fight to defend his title. It’s a kind of battle. The fighters attacked each other in the eleventh round. The twelfth and final round was nothing short of an extraordinary, fast-paced duel, leaving little doubt that the entire competition would stay in the memory of the fan base. In the end, Martinez went away with the decisive victory, as well as the IBF belt.
Whatever each man is paid for in duel is simply not enough.
