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A new International Boxing Federation (IBF) minimumweight champion was crowned on Saturday afternoon at the Bula Gymnasium in the city of General Santos after René Mark Cuarto dethroned Pedro Taduran by a very fine unanimous decision.
Good technical game between Taduran’s attacker and Fourth’s counterattack. In the end, the judges sided with Fourth’s less but cleaner connections as all three agreed to score the fight 115-113 in their favor.
Taduran, who fell to 14-3-1, was making the second defense of the title he won in 2019 against Samuel Salva. His first defense against Daniel Valladares of Mexico ended in a technical draw as the challenger suffered a bad cut in the fight.
It was Taduran’s first fight in a year as Cuarto was coming off a 14-month hiatus.
“We had a good fight. Pedro was very tough,” Cuarto (19-2-2) said in an interview in Filipino with Pow Salud, who broadcast the entire card on his PowCast Facebook and YouTube pages.
“We studied his style and were able to employ our game plan. We really prepared a lot for this. I’m so happy that we won. All of our sacrifices paid off.”
It was an interesting stylistic encounter between the two, as the roles were defined throughout the match without much adjustment. They both bet on what they did well and it turned out to be an entertaining affair.
Taduran advanced tirelessly, chasing Fourth everywhere as he led with his boastful lefts and uppercuts to deal damage. The challenger, on the other end, used the usual weapons of orthodox fighters against lefties while connecting with lead hooks and right hands.
The defending champion had his best moment in the seventh round when he buckled Fourth, but the challenger managed to stay upright even as Taduran launched a lunge in an attempt to turn the game completely in his favor.
Although his enemy survived the round, Taduran received a boost of energy from his success in the seventh round while attacking with a purpose. However, Cuarto recovered very well by going back to what made him successful in previous rounds. The challenger used Taduran’s aggression against him as he waited to feel the ropes on his back before releasing his leading right hands.
“He hit me with a good shot but I trained well,” Fourth admitted after the game. “My heart took control to win this fight.”
When asked if he would be willing to give Taduran a rematch due to the close decision, Cuarto did not compromise and instead pointed to his coach and title sponsor.
“Coach Nonoy Neri and Senator Manny (Pacquiao) will be the ones to decide what the next step is for me.”
