Rene Mark Cuarto (left) and Daniel Valladares (right) during the weigh-in of their world title bout. | Photo from Valladares’ Facebook page.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The list of Filipino world boxing champions was cut down to just one.
This is after International Boxing Federation (IBF) world minimumweight world champion Rene Mark Cuarto loses his title to Mexican Daniel Valladares on Friday, July 1, 2022 (Saturday, Manila Time) via split decision in Monterey, Mexico.
With Cuarto’s loss, the Philippines is left with only one world boxing champion in World Boxing Council (WBC) world featherweight king Mark Magsayo.
Magsayo has an upcoming title defense on July 7 in San Antonio, Texas against dangerous Mexican Rey Vargas.
It was a heartbreaking defeat for Cuarto who fought Valladares toe-to-toe in their 12-round duel.
One judge favored Cuarto, 114-113 while two judges saw the bout 116-112 in favor of the hometown boxer.
Cuarto started off nicely by establishing good combinations that mostly found their targets.
However, as the fight progressed, Valladares became more aggressive and pressured Cuarto throughout the rest of the bout.
Cuarto momentarily shifted the momentum in his favor in the fourth round when he targetted the cut on Valladares’ left eyebrow caused by an accidental headbutt.
Valladares managed to overcome Cuarto’s retaliation by launching timely combinations and evened things out when he also inflicted a cut on Cuarto.
Both boxers then went on a toe-to-toe battle with Valladares clearly landing the telling blows to get the nod of the two judges.
The 25-year-old Cuarto who held the IBF world minimumweight title for two years suffered his second defeat with 20 wins, 11 knockouts, and two draws.
Meanwhile, Valladares improved his record to 25-3-1 (win-loss-draw) with 15 knockouts and finally won the elusive IBF world title after he failed to win it in 2020 against erstwhile Filipino champion Pedro Taduran.
Their bout was declared a non-contest or draw in the fourth round after Valladares suffered a nasty cut.
Taduran went on to lose the title to Cuarto in the following year via unanimous decision.
Valladares is quite familiar with Filipino boxers. Before facing Cuarto and Taduran, he fought and defeated Merlito Sabillo and Christian Araneta both in 2019. /rcg
Cuarto retains IBF minimumweight title