RENE Mark Cuarto dethroned Pedro Taduran via unanimous decision to wrest the International Boxing Federation (IBF) minimumweight title Saturday at the Bula gym in General Santos City.
The 24-year-old Cuarto outboxed the former champion for 12 rounds to win the bout by identical scores of 115-113 on all the three judges’ scorecards.
Taduran controlled the fight early on, but failed to deliver during the late rounds, which saw Cuarto dominate the final four rounds in all of the judges' cards.
Cuarto, a native of Zamboanga Del Norte and handled by long-time Manny Pacquiao trainer Nonoy Neri, raised his record to 19-2-2 with 11 KOs.
He became the second new Filipino world champion in a week’s time after Vic Saludar hacked out a split decision win against Robert Paradero to claim the vacant minimumweight version of the World Boxing Association (WBA) in Laguna last Feb. 20.
The loss was a sorry one for Taduran, 24, who failed to retain the 105-lb IBF belt in his second title defense.
Trained by former world champion Tacy Macalos, Taduran is now 14-3-1 overall, with 11 KOs. He previously defended the IBF crown by settling for a majority draw against Daniel Valladares in Mexico in February last year.
Games and Amusement Board Chairman Abraham Mitra supervised the fight card presented by Manny Pacquiao (MP) Promotions.
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