Gibbons comes to Taduran’s rescue

All is not lost for International Boxing Federation (IBF) minimumweight titleholder Pedro Taduran, whose scheduled bout in about two weeks just got scrapped.

After his first defense of the IBF 105-lb title on 23 November in Korea got canceled, Taduran is now looking at a unification showdown with the winner of next week’s World Boxing Organization (WBO) and World Boxing Council (WBC) clash in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

That fight will feature Oscar Collazo, the WBO champion from Puerto Rico, against Thammanoon Niyomtrong, the WBC ruler from Thailand.

Sean Gibbons, the head of MP Promotions and Viva Promotions, told DAILY TYRIBUNE on Friday that the Filipino southpaw has a solid fallback.

Taduran was supposed to defend against Chinese knockout artist Zhu Dianxing in Jeju Island but the Korean promoter suddenly encountered sponsorship problems a couple of weeks ago.

Gibbons said if Collazo annexes the WBC jewels, a clash with Taduran can be done in the United States in the first quarter of 2025.

And if efforts to stage that fight doesn’t materialize, there is a proposal for Taduran to travel to Mexico to risk the crown or even in Saudi Arabia, which is fast becoming a haven for big fights the last two years.

Either way, things are not looking too bad for him as Gibbons has something in store for the pint-sized punching machine from Libon, Albay.