TACONING RETAINS OPBF TITLE IN TERRIFIC ?FIGHT OF THE YEAR? CANDIDATE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 13 Sep 2015
Taconing.
Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation light flyweight champion and World Boxing Council No. 1 ranked Jonathan ?Lightning? Taconing retained his title in a terrific ?Fight of the Year? candidate winning a ten round unanimous technical decision over a battling challenger Jomar Fajardo before a full house at the ?Flash? Elorde Grand Ballroom in Sucat, Paranaque late Saturday.
The 28 year old Taconing, a southpaw whose nickname ?Lighting? justifiably reflected his hand-speed was cut over both eyes because of a clash of heads in the fifth round while Fajardo also sustained a cut in the same round midway of a furious exchange.
At 2:58 of the 10th round the ringside physician ruled that Taconing who was bleeding badly from both cuts was in no position to continue forcing referee Virgilio Garcia to call a halt and to go to the scorecards of the three judges, Gil Co, Carlo Baluyut and Fernando Batistil who all scored the fight for the champion.
Co had Taconing ahead 98-90, Baluyut 97-91 and Batistil 96-91.
Garcia did a terrible job as referee, inexplicably failing to call several obvious low blows thrown by Fajardo before he made amends by penalizing the rugged Fajardo from the Aljoe Jaro stable with a two- point deduction at the end of round six which negated the advantage of a big uppercut landed by the challenger.
Taconing used his rapier-like left to rip through the defense of Jarado whose record of 14-9-2 with 7 knockouts didn?t fairly reflect the fighting qualities of Fajardo who had give WBO light flyweight mandatory challenger Francisco Rodriguez a rough time when they clashed earlier this year, salvaging a split draw in their first encounter but losing the rematch bvy a unanimous ten round decision.
In a big second round Taconing staggered Fajardo whose gloves touched the canvas but referee Garcia failed to call a knockdown as stated in the rules.
The two fighters continued their all-out war before Taconing dropped Fajardo at 1:15 of the fourth round before Garcia for the first time warned Fajardo for a low blow in round five.
After getting nailed with a vicious uppercut in round six which hardly made him flinch, Taconing came back in round seven before the two fighters had the crowd on its feet with some hellacious exchanges in round eight.
An off-balance Fajardo went down in round nine but Garcia, this time correctly ruled it a slip before another head-butt by Fajardo in the tenth round forced the stoppage on instructions of the Games and Amusements Board ringside doctor.
With the win in a non-stop, action-packed bout that was a technically sound battle, Taconing improved his record to 22-2 with one draw and 18 knockouts while the game Fajardo who was a crowd pleaser because of his ability to absorb some big shots but still fight back, dropped to 14-10-2 with 7 knockouts.
Taconing was coming off an impressive 10th round TKO over former world champion Rmaon Gracia Hirales of Mexico last April 5 in Mexico and is in line for a title shot against reigning WBC champion Pedro Guevara.
Taconing is also ranked No. 6 in the world by the WBA and WBO and No. 4 by the IBF while Fajardo was ranked No. 12 by the OPBF.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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