UNBEATEN prospect Jade Bornea has barged into world title contention following an impressive third round knockout win over No. 3 ranked Mohammed Obbadi in their International Boxing Federation (IBF) super flyweight title eliminator on Jan. 15, 2022 (PH time) in Monterrey, Mexico.
The 26-year-old former amateur star earned the mandatory challenger spot after the win and will be next in line for the IBF super flyweight belt currently around the waist of fellow Filipino Jerwin Ancajas.
Bornea, however, isn’t keen on an all-Filipino world title fight with Ancajas and would rather explore other options.
“We prefer that it won’t happen. For now, we are just happy with the victory,” Bornea’s promoter JC Manangquil told SunStar Cebu. “Now that Jade is in the prime spot at the rankings, it will be easier to look for bigger fights for him. We will take our time. We will sit down and discuss the options.”
Ancajas is scheduled to defend his IBF strap against Argentinean challenger Fernando Daniel Martinez in February.
Juan Francisco Estrada holds the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Association (WBA) Super super flyweight belts, Joshua Franco is the regular WBA super flyweight and Kazuto Ioka is the World Boxing Oganization (WBO) super flyweight titleholder.
Estrada is slated to defend his twin belts against Roman Gonzalez in a rematch on March 5, 2022 in San Diego, California. Ioka, in the meantime, just successfully defended his title with a unanimous decision over fellow Japanese Ryoji Fukunaga on Dec. 31, 2021, while Franco didn’t have a scheduled fight.
Bornea is rated No. 14 by the WBC and No. 15 by the WBO. He isn’t ranked by the WBA.
With his impressive performance in Mexico, wherein he knocked Obbadi out with a wicked body shot, Manangquil is convinced that his young ward will become a world champion very soon.
“I was very impressed with Jade’s fight,” said Manangquil. “All the hard work that Jade did for four months definitely showed up in the fight. He had a great camp with coach Ernel Fontanilla and coach Ting Ariosa. Jade will be a world champion with that kind of condition.”