Taduran-Cuarto fight a good match - Monis

By LITO DELOS REYES

IBF World minimumweight champion Pedro “Kid Pedro Heneral” Taduran’s coming fight against fellow Filipino Rene Mark Cuarto of Zamboanga del Norte is good for the country.

“Maganda naman pero mas, maganda sana kong ibang lahi pero ang problema wala tayo magawa kasi sino sunod ang rules mayron basehan sa ratings kong sino ang karapatdapat,”

(It’s good but more, I wish I could be a different race but the problem is we can’t do anything because who’s next to the rules have a base in the ratings), said Art Monis, manager of Taduran.

“At least kung sino man ang papalarin sa kanilang dalawa Filipino pa rin ang world champion natin, (And at least whoever is lucky with their two Filipinos is still our world champion) said Monis.

The 24-year-old Taduran (14W-2L-1D, 11KOs) is presently doing jogging but not a sparring session yet.

“Sa ngayon po hindi pa po ako nag iisparring. Light training muna po at jogging,” (So far, I have not doing sparring. Light training first and jogging), said Taduran, who will start probably in January) said Taduran.

Cuarto (18W-2L-2D, 11KOs) is ranked no. 3 while ranked no. 1 and 2 are both vacant.

The no. 4 is Melvin Jerusalem of Bukidnon followed by no. 5 Samuel Salva of Iligan and no. 6 Lito Dante of Bohol. They are all Filipinos.

“Napakaganda po itong laban na ito naming. Ayos lang po yan basta po patas ang laban,”

(This is a very good fight for us that’s okay and that the fight should be fair), said Taduran.

But Taduran suffered a nasty cut which resulted in a technical draw in the 4th round against Daniel Valladares of Mexico in his first title defense last Feb. 1, 2020, at Jardin Cerveza Expo in Guadalupe, Nuevo León, Mexico.

Taduran first suffered his defeat against Joel Lino of Davao by a split decision last April 2016 in M’lang.

His second defeat was also a controversial one. Taduran has deducted a point in Round 8 and 11 for repeated low blows which resulted in a unanimous decision against Chayaphon Moonsri of Thailand last August 2018 for the WBC World minimumweight title in Nakhon Sawan.

PHOTO: IBF World minimumweight champion Pedro Taduran with manager Art Monis