MANILA, Philippines: Filipino fighter Jerwin Ancajas suffered a ninth round knockout defeat to defending champ Takuma Inoue, failing to seize the World Boxing Association (WBA) bantamweight division title at the the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday, February 24.

This is the first time that Ancajas lost via knockout in his professional career as he fell to a 34-4-2 win-loss-draw record.

On the other hand, Inoue, who stopped Ancajas with two solid body shots at the 44-second mark of the ninth round, improved to a 19-1 slate.

With Ancajas' defeat, the Philippines remains without a world champion after its last in Marlon Tapales yielded to Naoya Inoue, brother of Takuma, in their super bantamweight unification bout last December.

Ancajas was the second Filipino boxer to go down via knockout after Jonas Sultan who yielded to another Japanese bet Riku Masuda in the first round of a non-title bantamweight tiff in the undercard.