Taduran applies brakes in training

All is well over at Pedro Taduran’s training camp in Las Vegas two weeks before his third defense of the International Boxing Federation minimumweight crown in Temecula, California.

In fact, Taduran can’t help but express his utmost excitement in facing Mexican Gustavo Perez on 3 April at the Pechanga Resort Casino.

“Can’t wait,” Taduran, who packs a 19-4-1 win-loss-draw mark with 13 knockouts, said from Sin City after his workout at Sean Gibbons’ Knuckleheads Boxing Gym.

The division limit is 105 pounds and when he checked his weight upon waking up, the needle registered 116 pounds.

But Taduran, 29, and his team are not deeply concerned.

“I have been this way ever since,” Taduran said, recalling that in his first two defenses, he was a little over in the morning of the weighin.

“In the end, I make the weight,” he added, noting similar incidents when he made the first defense against Ginjiro Shigeoka in Osaka last May and compatriot Christian Balunan in Manila late last year.

Everything is slowing down for Taduran, who now has two remaining sparring sessions left.

Even his food and water intake have been drastically cut.

“I still get to eat chicken during lunch and fish for dinner aside from fruits,” added the volume-punching Bicol-born southpaw.

Meanwhile, Perez has relocated to San Diego, California, from his hometown of Ensenada in Mexico, oozing with optimism the title will change hands.

Perez, 27, enters the ring armed with a 16-1-0 win-loss-draw mark with five knockouts.