By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Another Pinoy resurrected the hopes of the PHL boxing community in transcending the country back to the pedestal of the sport.
In a hostile environment at the Shiga Daihatsu Arena in Japan on July 28, 2024, Filipino pug Pedro Taduran went all out and tallied an impressive technical knockout (TKO) victory to dethrone home bet Ginijiro Shigeoka.
With the huge upset win, Taduran just stole the International Boxing Federation (IBF) minimumweight championship belt from the Japanese star and also dealt him his first-ever loss in his professional boxing career.
Unbothered by the loud cheers coming from Shigeoka’s Japanese supporters, Taduran meant business from the get-go as he stunned the former champion with his high-octane action inside the ring.
Taduran maintained his fast pace and neutralized Shigeoka’s ability to counterpunch, backpedaling everytime he connected on a 1-2 punch combination to avoid getting hit.
Despite a little adjustment that Shigeoka’s camp deployed to their ward in hopes of slowing down Taduran’s fighting style, that move still failed to disrupt the Filipino’s rhythm as his fluid ring movement helped him batter the Japanese when they met in the middle for exchanges.
After the beating he received from Taduran, Shigeoka suffered a bad injury on his right eye midway through the fourth round.
That huge injury he sustained then derailed his in-ring movements which Taduran capitalized, targeting the head of Shigeoka to pile up the points as the rounds progressed.
Just when Taduran thought he could put away Shigeoka in the sixth-eighth round, the Japanese warriors continued to battle despite the large swollen cut that drew more cheers from the crowd at the Shiga Daihatsu Arena.
However, Shigeoka’s reign in the IBF minimumweight division was put to an end during the pivotal ninth round when the match referee officially stopped the fight.
Due to the damage that Taduran inflicted on Shigeoka’s eye, Steve Willis decided to protect the Japanese boxer and rewarded the TKO victory to the Filipino.
With the morale-boosting win, Taduran just improved to 17 wins, 13 knockouts, and four defeats while Shigeoka tasted his first pro loss and fell to 11 wins, nine knockouts, and a loss.
