By CALVIN CORDOVA
CEBU CITY — A former world champion and a rising regional titlist will try to end the year with a crucial win when they clash in the main event of the “Kumong Bol-anon XIII” on Thursday, Dec. 28, at the Bohol Wisdom School Gymnasium in Tagbilaran City, Bohol.
PMI Boxing Stable’s Jake Amparo and ex-world titlist Pedro Taduran of Elorde Boxing Gym clash in an International Boxing Federation (IBF) minimumweight title eliminator in the boxing card put up by f PMI Bohol Boxing Promotions headed by Atty. Floriezyl Echavez Podot.
The winner in the Amparo-Taduran duel will become the mandatory challenger of unbeaten Japanese Ginjiro Shigeoka, the current IBF minimumweight champion.
“This is a very unpredictable and exciting fight. A former world champion and a regional champion fighting against each other. This fight is on a different level,” said Podot after the weigh-in proceedings on Wednesday, Dec. 27, at the PMI Bohol Gymnasium.
Amparo and Taduran easily made the weight with the former weighing in 103.5 pounds and the latter tipping the scales at 104.8.
“I prepared hard for this fight because I know my opponent is a former world champion and a pressure fighter. We’ve already studied him,” said the 26-year-old Amparo.
Amparo snatched the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Asia-Pacific minimumweight belt when he shocked top Japanese prospect Goki Kobayashi via unanimous decision last Aug. 5 in Japan.
Out to sustain his drive back to prominence is Taduran, who lost his IBF minimumweight title to Rene Mark Cuarto in Gen. Santos City in 2021 and also in their rematch the following year in Digos City.
A couple of regional titles are also at stake in the card.
Gerwin Asilo (7-0, 3 KOs) faces Aljum Pelecio (11-2, 7 KOs) for the WBO Asia-Pacific Youth bantamweight belt, while Joseph Sumabong (5-0, 3 KOs) and Erson Trinidad (6-3-1, 3 KOs) clash for the vacant World Boxing Foundation (WBF) Australasian minimumweight title.
