Melvin Jerusalem made it look simple within the first protection of his WBC strawweight title on Sunday, outboxing the beforehand unbeaten Luis Castillo en path to a unanimous choice win at Mandaluyong Metropolis Faculty in Metro Manila, Philippines. The scores had been 120-107 on two playing cards and 118-109 on the third.
Jerusalem (23-3, 12 knockouts) scored the battle’s solely knockdown in spherical one, dropping the taller Castillo (21-1-1, 13 KOs) on a straight proper hand via the guard. Castillo beat the depend however the sample was set because the extra explosive Jerusalem took benefit of the aggression from the slower, plodding Castillo to flurry and potshot at will.
The battle was the primary world title battle for the 30-year-old Jerusalem of Manolo Fortich, Philippines in his house nation, after profitable each the WBC title and the WBO strawweight belt he beforehand held in Japan, and making his solely protection of the WBO belt in the US.
Jerusalem is rated no. 4 by The Ring at 105 kilos, one spot beneath the IBF titleholder Pedro Taduran, who’s the one different present champion from the Philippines, and three spots beneath Oscar Collazo, the unbeaten Puerto Rican who defeated him for the WBO title final yr.
The southpaw Castillo, 27, loses for the primary time as knowledgeable, although he was taking a big leap in competitors, having not fought any identified contenders in his ten yr profession in Mexico.
In earlier motion, former titleholder Jerwin Ancajas (35-4-2, 23 KOs) made his return to the ring following his knockout loss to Takuma Inoue in February, defeating Thai journeyman Sukpraserd Ponpitak (30-20, 20 KOs) by fifth spherical disqualification.
The battle ended after Ponpitak, who was dropped in spherical one by a proper hook and deducted a degree within the third for roughhousing, threw Ancajas to the canvas in frustration. The referee stopped the bout on the 2:34 mark, awarding Ancajas the victory.
Ancajas, 32, weighed in at a career-high 125 1/4, the identical as his opponent. The win was simply the second in his final 5 fights after his IBF junior bantamweight title reign resulted in February of 2022 with a pair of defeats to Fernando Martinez.
