By REYNALD MAGALLON
A relentless and unforgiving Pedro Taduran gave Ginjiro Shigeoka a heavy beating before coming away with a split decision victory to retain the International Boxing Federation (IBF) mini flyweight crown Saturday, May 24, at the Intex Osaka Convention Center in Japan.
The 28-year-old pride of the Albay was the aggressor from the start to finish, lunging forward and staggering Shigeoka with deadly overhead lefts and booming hooks to the body – enough to convince judges for a 113-115, 115-113, 118-110 scores.
Taduran improved to an 18-4-1 record with 13 knockouts while Shigeoka absorbed his second straight loss to slide to a 11-2 slated with 9KOs.
Although Shigeoka managed to survive the 12 rounds of the fight unlike in their first encounter where he succumbed in the ninth, the Japanese challenger still had to be stretchered off the ring after going limp and seemingly lost consciousness on his corner.
And that came after the former Japanese champion was peppered with heavy hits from Taduran who invested on the body shots to wear down the very shifty Shigeoka.
Shigeoka, in all fairness, did give Taduran some trouble with his speed, sneaking in some short uppercuts and hooks before backpedalling in the opening rounds.
The Filipino champion, however, was showing no respect for Shigeoka’s firepower as he was pressing the fight in the middle rounds and closing in despite getting hit by the Japanese.
The tactic was paying dividends for Taduran as he was landing some solid shots to Shigeoka, who was being caught by the Filipino on the ropes several times.
Although Shigeoka was landing combinations in the championship rounds, he was visibly tired as he clinched to get some breather in between exchanges.
