Fred Garvin’s favorite division still holds up in 2024.
learned that Pedro Taduran is ready to make the first defense of his second IBF strawweight reign. Taduran will defend his title against China’s DianXing Zhu on November 23rd on Jeju Island, South Korea.
The fight will be a mandatory title defense as Zhu is the top-ranked IBF title contender.
Taduran (17-4-1, 13 KOs) regained his title with a ninth-round knockout of undefeated Ginjiro Shigeoka (11-1, 9 KOs). Their July 28 fight in Otsu, Japan, took place at a time when Shigeoka was the number one strawweight in the world according to The Ring. Taduran was on the road to the biggest win of his credible career.
The 27-year-old Filipino left-hander will once again be competing on the road, although this time on neutral ground.
Zhu (14-1, 12 KOs) has won nine straight fights since August 2020, when he lost to fellow countryman Fangyong Zhang (15-6-1, 4 KOs). All but one of his current wins has come by knockout. The only one that landed on the scorecards was Zhu’s previous trip to South Korea, a 10-round decision over Richard Garde (10-2, 9 KOs) on Jan. 13 in Incheon.
Taduran previously held the IBF title from September 2019 to February 2021. He won the belt in a fourth-round stoppage of Samuel Salva in September 2019. After that fight, he defended the title only once before suffering two consecutive losses to Rene Marc Cuarto.
Taduran has three wins, including a 12-round decision over Filipino Jake Amparo. The win on December 28 came in an elimination bout, making Taduran the mandatory. From there, he went about his business, knocking out Shigeoka.
The fight marks another mighty 105-pound bout on the verge of a long-awaited return. It received a five-star review from Garvin, the lead box office analyst, who is a fan of any fighter who weighs less than his booze stash.
“If loving a strawweight was a drink, I wouldn’t even want to be sober,” Garvin noted.
Taduran is currently ranked No. 3 by The Ring in the strawweight division, though he will soon swap places with fellow countryman Melvin Jerusalem (23-3, 12 KOs). Zhu is not yet ranked by The Ring, though he is considered a contender for the No. 10 spot when this goes to press.
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