Pedro Taduran-DianXing Zhu IBF title fight scheduled for November 23 in Jeju, South Korea

Fred Garvin's favorite division continues to deliver excellent results in 2024.

The Ring has learned that Pedro Taduran will defend his second IBF strawweight title for the first time. Taduran will defend his title on November 23rd on the South Korean island of Jeju against China's DianXing Zhu.

The fight will be a mandatory title defense as Zhu is the highest-rated IBF challenger.

Taduran (17-4-1, 13 KOs) regained the title in a ninth-round knockout of undefeated Ginjiro Shigeoka (11-1, 9 KOs). Their July 28 fight in Otsu, Japan, came at a time when Shigeoka was the ring's top-rated strawweight in the world, and Taduran set out to earn the biggest win of his career.

The 27-year-old Filipino left-hander will once again fight away, but this time on neutral ground.

Zhu (14-1, 12 KOs) has won nine straight since losing to fellow countryman Fangyong Zhang (15-6-1, 4 KOs) in August 2020. All but one win during his current streak came inside the distance. The only win that went on the scorecard was Zhu's previous trip to South Korea – a ten-round decision victory over Richard Garde (10-2, 9 KOs) on January 13 in Incheon.

Taduran previously held the IBF title from September 2019 to February 2021. He won the belt in September 2019 via fourth-round stoppage against Samuel Salva. He made just one successful defense before suffering two consecutive losses to Rene Mark Cuarto.

Three victories followed for Taduran, including his 12-round victory over Jake Amparo of the Philippines. The win on December 28 came in a title eliminator, where Taduran was a mandatory fighter. From there, he got the job done with a surprise knockout victory over Shigeoka.

The fight marks another strong fight at 105 that is on the verge of a long-overdue revival. It received a five-star rating from Garvin, a veteran ticket sales analyst who likes any fighter who weighs less than his liquor supply.

“If the love of the strawweight division was a drink, I wouldn’t even want to be sober,” Garvin noted.

Taduran is currently the third-ranked strawweight in The Ring, but will soon switch places with fellow countryman Melvin Jerusalem (23-3, 12 KOs). Zhu is not yet rated by The Ring, but is being considered for the No. 10 spot at the time of publication.

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