MASAM SPORTS 9: RENE MARK CUARTO VS. PEDRO TADURAN REMATCH FOR THE IBF MINIMUMWEIGHT TITLE ON JANUARY 29
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 12 Jan 2022
The long awaited rematch for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) world minimumweight title between champion Rene Mark Cuarto and challenger Pedro Taduran, the former champion, will be on Saturday, January 29, 2022 in Digos City, Davao del Sur.
During their first encounter on February 27, 2021 at the Bula Gym in General Santos City, Cuarto dethroned Taduran via a close unanimous decision. All three judges agreed on scoring the fight 115-113 in favor of the new champion Cuarto.
It was described by ESPN as "a good technical match between the attacker in Taduran and the counter-puncher in Cuarto." After the final bell, the judges gave their nod to the lesser but cleaner punches landed by Cuarto.
Taduran's record dipped to 14-3-1 with 11 KOs. It was his second defense of the title he won in 2019 against Samuel Salva in the first all-Filipino title fight in the Philippines in 94 years. His first defense against Mexican Daniel Valladares on February 1, 2020 in Guadalupe, Mexico ended with a technical draw as the challenger suffered a bad cut in the fight.
It was the first fight for Taduran after a year while Cuarto (19-2-2, 11 KOs) was making a comeback after 14 months of inactivity.
"We had a good fight. Pedro was very tough," Cuarto said in an interview with Pow Salud who streamed the entire fight card on his PowCast Facebook and YouTube pages.
"We studied his style and we were able to employ our game plan. We really prepared hard for this. I'm so happy that we won. All of our sacrifices bore fruit."
It was a thrilling stylistic match between the two as the roles were defined throughout the match with not a lot of adjustments happening. Both banked on what they did well and it resulted in an entertaining affair.
Taduran most of the time was on the offensive, pursuing Cuarto tirelessly while connecting with his deadly straight lefts and uppercuts to do damage. The challenger used his normal weapons of right hooks and following up with staggering right hands.
Taduran hit Cuarto in the seventh round which caused his legs to wobble but the challenger survived even though the champ released a flurry of punches in trying to stop Cuarto to keep his belt.
Cuarto had a new lease on life as he recovered and fought relentlessly like what he did at the start. Taduran suffered his first defeat since his 2018 defeat to Wanheng Menayothin by UD12 on August 29, 2018 in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand.
"He hit me with a good shot but I trained well," revealed Cuarto after winning the title. "My heart took over to win this fight."
The fight plan that time according to chief trainer Nonoy Neri was for Cuarto to punch on different angles and find his opponent's weaknesses. Neri studied Taduran’s style and Cuarto made it hard for him in the first fight.
Taduran's camp considered the unanimous verdict as controversial and demanded a rematch right away. But it took almost a year for the return bout to materialize.
This coming rematch, Cuarto may have the slight upperhand but expect Taduran to give his all to win back the belt grabbed from him by Cuarto.
The 25-year-old Cuarto, alias "Mighty Mouse", has a KO rate of 47.83% in 133 rounds. The orthodox fighter is from Jose Dalman, Zamboanga del Norte.
Taduran, age 25 years, alias "Kid Pedro Heneral", has a KO rate of 61.11% in 85 rounds he fought. The southpaw fighter is from Liboon, Albay.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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