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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As 96,000 people poured out of Wembley’s gates, a pile of well-laid plans rose delicately into the London night sky. Ahead of his headline fight against Daniel Dubois, Anthony Joshua, the pay-per-view star and longtime poster boy of British boxing, had already been quizzed about potential fights with the likes of Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.

Fury and Usyk are tied for a rematch in December, while AJ has already failed to beat Usyk in 24 rounds. That hasn’t stopped talk of Joshua’s next move if he beats Daniel Dubois…

After his British colleague beat AJ, a rematch now seems more realistic than a clash with one of the huge boys. Everything was going so smoothly under novel trainer Ben Davison.

Wins upon wins. The momentum slowly built. Joshua looked confident as he dispatched the likes of Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou. But none of them had the hunger and raw punching power of Frank Warren’s dynamite destroyer.

The rebuild would not be officially complete until a victory over a live dog. With Ben Davison jumping into the ring, pushing referee Marcus McDonnell aside, and Joshua lying prostrate on the canvas, the final part of Operation AJ was cleaning up the scene.

Bypassing four non-roster contenders, including a noble newcomer to the art (Ngannou) who improved his stock after the Fury loss, Joshua set his sights on becoming a three-time world champion.

It wasn’t meant to be. Daniel Dubois made sure of that. Joshua was uncertain from the start. He staggered, dazed, held in the clinch, neglecting his top-notch jab as his brain cells fluttered. While not ideal, a rematch with Dubois is key to a comeback for the 34-year-old, stumbling towards the end. Failure to right the wrongs of last night will spell the end of any fleeting hopes for Fury or Usyk.

Raymond Ford will try to win another world title, but in a different weight class.

Ford will face Orlando Gonzalez on Nov. 9, promoter Eddie Hearn announced Friday. The 10-round fight will take place at the Wells Fargo Arena and precedes the main event between IBF welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Karen Chukhadzhian.

On the next Matchroom Boxing show, Jesse Rodriguez will defend his WBC Ring junior bantamweight title and fight Pedro Guevara.

All three fights will be broadcast live on DAZN.

“Featherweight World Champion @raysavage856 moves up to 130lbs in Philadelphia!” Eddie Hearn said in a post on social media. “’The Savage’ and Two Kings… in an incredible show in Philadelphia, November 9th.”

Ford (15-1, 8 knockouts) will fight in front of a biased crowd from his home in Camden, Up-to-date Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.

The 25-year-old left-hander won the WBA featherweight world title on March 2, overcoming an early deficit to stop Otabek Kholmatov in the final round. Entering the final round, Ford was trailing 106-103 on two judges’ scorecards.

Ford became the first American fighter to sign an amateur contract and win a world title under the Matchroom Boxing banner. Ford and super middleweight title challenger Diego Pacheco were the first two American fighters to sign with Matchroom Boxing directly from the amateur ranks.

In his first attempt to defend his WBA featherweight title on June 1, Ford lost a split decision to Nick Ball.

The move to 130 pounds shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Ford had been considering moving up one weight class from featherweight following his knockout win over Kholmatov.

Gonzalez (23-2, 13 KOs), who lives in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, last fought on June 28 in a close fight, stopping goaltender Jose Santos Gonzalez in the third round. In his previous fight on November 29, the left-handed Gonzalez won a split decision over Jorge Castaneda.

The 29-year-old has fought his last three fights under the ProBox TV banner. He is the older cousin of undefeated junior lightweight LeBron Henry and has won his last five fights since losing to Misael Lopez in September 2022.

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