Pedro Taduran is the only reigning Filipino world boxing champion at the moment. And right now, he’s a champion nobody in his own top 10 wants to fight.
The IBF minimumweight ruler is gearing up for his fourth title defense, eyeing an October date in Manila, Cebu, or possibly the United States. MP Promotions president Sean Gibbons, according to veteran scribe Quinito Henson, is still working the phones to finalize an opponent. There’s just one problem: the queue of contenders willing to actually step in with Taduran seems to keep getting shorter.
Taduran’s Mandatory That Wasn’t
It should have been simple. China’s Dianxing Zhu, the division’s No. 1 contender, was next in line for Taduran’s mandatory defense, and talks were already underway to stage the bout in Manila or somewhere in China, with the Zhu camp offering Taduran a $70,000 purse to bring his belt overseas. Then Zhu parted ways with his manager, and the whole arrangement collapsed.
“No China, Zhu left his manager and went somewhere else,” Gibbons said. “It’s a disaster.”
Just like that, the mandatory that was supposed to be Taduran’s next fight fell through.
No One Seems Willing to Dance
Taduran’s manager, Cucuy Elorde, says the champ is training at the Elorde gym in Sucat, staying sharp while he waits on a call that, at this point, may not come from anywhere near the top of the rankings. That’s because none of the division’s top 10 fighters appears to be in line to face him.
“Ayaw ng Hapon at Mexicano labanan si Pedro,” Elorde said.
That’s not an accident. That’s a scouting report.
Japan’s Ryusei Matsumoto (No. 3), Takeshi Ishii (No. 5), and Katsuki Mori (No. 9) have all steered clear of the champion. Mexico’s Aaron de la Cruz Escobedo (No. 4) isn’t exactly rushing in either, not after watching Taduran dispose of countryman Gustavo Perez Alvarez in the seventh round in Temecula last April. Taduran, it appears, has scared off half a division’s worth of top-10 contenders.
The others in the top 10 are Filipinos, including Christian Balunan at No. 6, whom Taduran already outpointed last October. Melvin Jerusalem, Ian Abne, and Vic Saludar are potential opponents, too, but Gibbons reportedly is unwilling to book an all-Filipino title fight.
Enter Brandon Moreno, Maybe
All that leaves the ladder sliding all the way down to No. 11: Spain’s Brandon Moreno.
“Ayaw din ni Sir Sean pumili ng kapwa Pilipino kaya baka yung Español na si Brandon Moreno ang maging challenger,” Elorde said. “Wala pang final, inaayos pa ni Sir Sean.”
Moreno is unbeaten at 16-0 with five knockouts, but the record comes with an asterisk the size of a passport stamp as he has never fought outside of Spain. Nine of his last ten fights went the distance, he’s never gone twelve rounds, and his ledger shows only three fights that even reached ten. He’s solid, maybe. But he is untested. Not remotely the resume of a man who has shared a ring with the kind of firepower Taduran has been putting on display.
That firepower is exactly the reason this list of suitors is so thin in the first place.
So, the champion waits. He trains in Sucat. He tells his manager and his promoter he’ll fight whoever gets put in front of him — mandatory or not, top-10 or not, Spaniard or not. The only thing left to find out is who’s actually willing to raise his hand.
Will Brandon Moreno be the one?
