Heart of gold

 OSAKA, Japan --- The morning papers hardly gave attention to Pedro Taduran’s victory over Ginjiro Shigeoka in their bruising 12-rounder for the Filipino’s International Boxing Federation (IBF) minimumweight crown Saturday at INTEX Osaka.

The sports pages either carried a baseball game or a horseracing story with a matching story of the prized equine.

A visiting scribe from Manila hit the streets early Sunday looking for Taduran’s title-retention bid.

He had gone to a few Family Marts along the trendy and classy Midosuji area at Shinsaibashi but could not find one, eliciting an angry stare from the man on duty at the cashier.

As he began to lose hope, he tried one last convenience store, plucked the first copy that had bold red Japanese writing thinking it was from the fight.

Instead, it was some baseball guy.

He turned the pages. He reached the back page.

Still no luck.

As he was about to give up, he lifted another paper and turned the pages.

Jackpot!

Though it was in black and white, he hurriedly returned to Hotel Nikko so he could show it to the fighter, who was waiting with his team for the van that would ferry them to Kansai International Airport for the flight back to Manila.

Taduran, who won by split decision, grinned and looked at the copy as though he understood what was written about him.

It showed a picture of his fallen foe being stretched out of the ring. There was an inset of him and Shigeoka in action.

Taduran’s smile disappeared as he took a close look at the main photo: Shigeoka lying on a stretcher and being attended to by his handlers.

“I just wish that he’s okay,” Taduran said as news about Shigeoka’s condition remained a mystery.

“I pray that he fully recovers,” added Taduran.

Being brought out of the ring on a stretcher is not new for Shigeoka.

The first time they fought, Taduran battered him so badly that he had to be rushed to the hospital after suffering a ninth-round stoppage.

Meanwhile, Taduran arrived in Manila on Sunday with his team with him.

Elorde siblings Marty and Cucuy Elorde and chief trainer Carl Penalosa Jr. and Taduran’s wife Joy joined the IBF 105-pound champion on the Philippine Airlines flight.

For retaining the title, Penalosa has given him a short break.

“Two weeks,” said Taduran, 28, who will be reunited with his two-year-old son Gaven.

“But after two weeks, I will start going to the gym again.”

There is a plan for him to battle two-belt Puerto Rican titleholder Oscar Collazo with American dealmaker Sean Gibbons presiding over the negotiations to pit the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Organization ruler against Taduran.