Pedro Taduran was made to work to regain his place on the strawweight title stage.
A terrific action fight saw the former IBF titlist outslug Jake Amparo en route to a well-earned twelve-round, unanimous decision victory Thursday in Bohol, Philippines. Taduran won by scores of 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112 in their sanctioned all-Filipino IBF strawweight title eliminator.
The win saw the 27-year-old southpaw become the mandatory challenger to his old title which is now held by Japan’s Ginjiro Shigeoka (10-0, 8KOs; 1NC).
Taduran remained a step ahead throughout the bout, though unable to completely turn away the locally based Amparo. His straight left hand found a home early, as Manila’s Taduran managed to push his stubborn countryman around the ring.
Amparo put his infighting skills to use in an effort to avoid the incoming. He countered Taduran with left hooks and more purposeful straight right hands as means to establish his desired distance through the middle rounds.
Taduran charged forward and drove Amparo through the ropes in round ten. The sequence was correctly ruled a push, though Taduran was able to reestablish control of the fight by that point. Body shots connected for the stalking Taduran while Amparo was forced to play defense after having previously narrowed the gap.
Amparo used lateral movement in the eleventh in an effort to slow down Taduran’s late power surge. Taduran worked his way inside and snapped back Amparo’s head with straight left hands. Patience ultimately paid off for Amparo, who slammed home a pair of right hands to hurt the former titleholder late in the frame.
Taduran was just a little sharper during most of the exchanges in the twelfth and final round. Amparo bobbed and weaved to avoid getting caught with anything dramatic. Still, Taduran was able to land enough straight lefts to put a cement his win and re-enter the title mix.
Amparo fell to 14-5-1 (3KOs) as the setback snapped a three-fight win streak.
Taduran (16-4-1, 12KOs) has now won two in a row after a three-fight winless streak the end of his year-plus title reign and a failed bid to regain the belt.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox