by Ronnie Nathanielsz

Former IBF minimumweight champion Florante Condes was defeated by way of a unanimous eight round decision to Japan’s Ryoichi Taguchi at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

Condes, who is a southpaw and is known for his devastating left which earned him the monicker of “The Little Pacquiao,” dropped Taguchi with a left in round two but couldn’t finish him off enabling the Japanese boxer to prevent him from winning a unanimous eight round decision.

All three judges scored the fight for Taguchi with two judgfes turning in identical 77-74 scorecards while the third judge had it by a much closer 76-75 also for Taguchi.

The 27 year old Taguchi improved his record to 20-2-1 with 8 knockouts while Condes dropped to 27-9-1 with 23 knockouts.

Taguchi was coming off an 8th round unanimous decision over Ryan Bito last December 31, 2013 after losing to Naoya Inoue by a unanimous ten round decision in a battle for the Japanese light flyweight title last August 25, 2013.

Condes on the other hand was coming off a 7th round TKO win over Cris Alfante to capture the vacant IBF Pan Pacific minimumweight title last March 15.

Condes won the IBF minimumweight title with a twelve round split decision over Mohamad Rachman of Indonesia on July 7, 2007 after dropping the Indonesian champion twice in round three and once in round ten. Filipino judge Salven Lagumbay and Thailand’s Montol Suriyachand of Thailand scored the fight 114-112 for Condes while Indonesian judge Muhammad Rois had Rachman the winner by a 117-113 margin.