BEHIND a vicious body barrage from the middle to the late rounds that took their toll on his foe, Pedro Taduran narrowly retained his International Boxing Federation minimumweight crown last Saturday night with a split decision win over Japanese Ginjiro Shigeoka at the Intex Arena in Osaka, Japan.
The battle between the two southpaws was a slugfest from start to finish, with Taduran emerging the winner in two of the three scorecards, winning the nod of Filipino judge Gil Co (115-113) and, surprisingly, Japanese Katsuhiko Nakamura (118-110).
American judge Dave Braslow saw it 115-113 in favor of Shigeoka, who absorbed his second straight setback after a string of 11 wins, all at the hands of Taduran, who raised his record to 18 wins (13 KOs), four losses and one draw.
So spent was Shigeoka after the grueling clash that he had to be taken out of the ring again on a stretcher, reminiscent of his first loss to Taduran, a ninth-round TKO, where he suffered a broken right eyeball, on July 8, 2024 in the Japanese city of Otsu.
The Japanese challenger showed no traumatic effects of that initial encounter and showed the hometown crowd that he was willing to slug toe-to-toe with his foe from the opening bell.
Once the bigger Taduran found his range, Shigeoka could not escape his rival’s body blows, often being tied up on the ropes and receiving repeated punishment as the fight wore on.
Shigeoka could find no answer to the onslaught of the Filipino, who had clearly piled up the points and won all the last three rounds convincingly.
The 12th round was all Taduran, who threw everything he had at the fading Japanese, who wilted in the face of the former’s relentless assault.
A native of Libon, Albay, Taduran, 30, is the most recent Filipino fighter to score success in the Land of the Rising after Melvin Jerusalem kept the WBC version in the same weight division with a clear unanimous decision triumph over Ginjiro’s older brother, Yudai, last March in the Japanese city of Tokoname.
Both fighters are the only current Filipino world champions.
