Jerwin Ancajas vs Jonathan Rodriguez off due to visa issue

ESPN is reporting that Saturday night’s scheduled super flyweight title fight between IBF titleholder Jerwin Ancajas and challenger Jonathan Rodriguez has been canceled, at least for the time being, due to a visa issue on Rodriguez’s side.

Top Rank’s Carl Moretti says they waited as long as they could and tried to get the issue taken care of, but it didn’t happen. Sean Gibbons of Ancajas’ team says that they’re open to rescheduling the fight, but left the door open to Ancajas (31-1-2, 21 KO) moving on to face a different opponent when he returns.

But he won’t be fighting Saturday. Top Rank have bumped the junior welterweight fight between Javier Molina (20-2, 8 KO) and Hiroki Okada (19-1, 13 KO) to the co-feature slot, beneath the super featherweight title fight between Miguel Berchelt and Jason Sosa.

It’s worth noting that very few eyes are going to be on this card, anyway, as the Top Rank show is going head-to-head with DAZN’s Canelo-Kovalev event from Las Vegas, which was always the obvious “A” event of the evening. This doesn’t help matters, certainly, but it probably doesn’t really change much either way, other than it delays the return of Ancajas.

Rodriguez (21-1, 15 KO) was coming in as a sizable underdog, an unproven fighter who hasn’t really fought at the top level of the sport yet.