MANILA — Filipino champion Pedro Taduran delivered a commanding performance to retain his International Boxing Federation (IBF) world minimumweight title via seventh-round technical knockout over Mexico’s Gustavo Perez Alvarez, while Emmanuel “Jimuel” Pacquiao Jr. scored a breakthrough first professional victory in the same card in Temecula, California.
The Libon, Albay-native Taduran showcased his trademark body attack to overwhelm Alvarez, registering multiple knockdowns before forcing the stoppage and securing his third successful title defense since winning the belt in May 2025.
After a slow start in the opening two rounds, the Filipino fighter found his rhythm in the third before scoring two knockdowns on Alvarez in the fourth round with body shots.
Taduran maintained control in the succeeding rounds, flooring Alvarez again in the sixth with another body blow before sealing the stoppage with a final knockdown in the seventh.
With the victory, Taduran improved his record to 20-4-1, including 14 wins by knockout. Alvarez dropped to 16-2-0, with five knockout victories.
In the same event, Emmanuel “Jimuel” Pacquiao Jr. secured his first professional win after stopping American Darrick Gates in the second round of their lightweight non-title bout.
Pacquiao unleashed a series of body shots followed by a punch to the head that pushed Gates to the ropes. Gates went down again late in the round from another body shot, prompting the referee to halt the contest.
Jimuel, son of eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, raised his record to 1-0-1, bouncing back from a majority draw against Brendan Lally in November 2025, while Gates fell to 0-2-0.
Meanwhile, former world champion Marlon Tapales suffered a unanimous decision loss (96-94, 98-92, 97-93) to Japan’s Yukinori Oguni on Friday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo./PN
