Taduran targets marquee matchup

The Ring magazine, regarded as The Bible of Boxing, doesn’t seem to be impressed by International Boxing Federation minimumweight boss Pedro Taduran’s skill set.

The online edition rates the Filipino southpaw as its No. 4 fighter in the 105-pb category.

On top is Oscar Collazo of Puerto Rico, the World Boxing Organization champion, while No. 2 is Knockout CP Freshmart of Thailand, who holds the World Boxing Association ruler and No. 3 is World Boxing Council supremo Melvin Jerusalem, also a Filipino, is No. 3.

The standings could change in the middle of next month given that Collazo and Freshmart are set to face each other in Saudi Arabia.

Taduran, meanwhile, is also seeing action — defending against Chinese knockout artist Zhu Dianxing — on 23 November in Jeju Island, Korea.

Surprisingly, Taduran is not at all bothered by the Ring’s ratings, stressing that he is going all-out when he battles Zhu next month.

After all, those are just numbers and assuming he gets past Zhu, he could be on a collision course with the winner of the Collazo-Freshmart showdown in Riyadh.

“Whoever wins I could end up facing one of them,” the southpaw from Libon, Albay, said after his workout at the Elorde Sports Center on Saturday.

Taduran, who dethroned erstwhile unbeaten Japanese Ginjiro Shigeoka to bag the IBF plum last July, is leaving for Jeju a week before the match so he could acclimatize to the cold weather and local conditions.