‘Kid Heneral’ vows to go all-out in title-defense vs Japanese foe

Sports

PEDRO “Kid Heneral” Taduran will be leaving nothing to chance when he battles Japan’s Ginjiro Shigeoka in a grudge rematch on May 24 in Osaka, Japan.

Taduran will be putting his International Boxing Federation (IBF) world minimumweight champion on the line in one of the card’s two world title matches.

Facing off in the main event are American fighter Angelo Leo (25-1, 12 KOs) and Japanese contender and former world champion Tomoki Kameda (42-4, 23 KOs). At stake in the fight is Leo’s IBF featherweight belt.

So much is at stake in Taduran’s fight as he looks to stay as one of the current Filipino world boxing champions. The other reigning Filipino world titlist is Melvin Jerusalem, who is currently the World Boxing Council world minimumweight champion.

Taduran snagged his current belt when he knocked out Shigeoka, then the defending champion, in the ninth round of their first meeting in July last year.

Taduran vowed to go for no less than a knockout victory.

“Gagawin ko yung best ko sa laban at gagawin ko na ma-knockout siya para sure yung win natin,” said Taduran in this week’s Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum.

The 28-year-old Taduran sports a 17-W-4L-1D, 13KOs record while Shigeoka has 11 victories with just one defeat. Nine of the Japanese’s wins came via knockout.(CCM)