Judge says it was one-sided

One of two judges who scored it 119-109 for IBF superflyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas in winning over challenger Jonas Sultan by a unanimous 12-round decision at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, Saturday night described the fight as one-sided.

Jonathan Davis, 68, said Ancajas dominated the action from the start and gave only the ninth round to Sultan for landing the heavier blows. Otherwise, it was Ancajas’ show all the way. Davis and judge Zachery Young turned in the same scorecard, 119-109 while judge Danny Sandoval had it 117-111.

“My job is to record how I see the fight,” said Davis. “It’s not up to me to decide who wins. It’s up to the fighters. How they perform is how I will score a fight. I thought Ancajas was the superior fighter over Sultan. The scorecards reflected it.”

Referee Wayne Hedgepeth worked his first world title fight for men and seemed too tolerant of Sultan’s butts that left ugly welts on Ancajas’ forehead. Sultan went down from a slip off a wild miss in the ninth round and Hedgepeth warned both fighters for low blows in the course of the action. Before the fight, Hedgepeth reminded the protagonists that a priority is not to hit an opponent while he’s down. 

Davis is a full-blooded Filipino with a foreign name from Cebu. His mother is a Sibal from Bamban, Tarlac. He was employed by four banks in the Philippines until his retirement at the age of 59 from Banco Filipino. In 2008, Davis migrated to the US where he now lives in Anaheim with his wife and three children. When not judging bouts, Davis works in the hospitality center of Disneyland at Anaheim. 

“There are 26,000 employees at Disneyland,” he said. “Disneyland has its executive offices in Burbank, engineering in Glendale and guest relations in Anaheim. I like interacting with people so I greet visitors at Anaheim. I’m proud that there are two Filipino international boxing judges in California. Rey Danseco from San Francisco and I from Los Angeles are the only Filipino licensed judges in the US since Sonny Padilla.” Davis has so far worked 17 world title, five championship elimination and 60 intercontinental/international and regional fights. 

Davis is now in Italy for the IBF Convention in Italy up to June 1. Ancajas and his trainer Joven Jimenez had planned to attend but they failed to obtain their Schengen visas from the Italian Embassy on time. Ancajas and his traveling party left Los Angeles for home Monday afternoon and arrived in Manila last night.