SALVA WANTED KRIEL, BUT PREPARES FOR TADURAN

By Rene Bonsubre,Jr

For the past couple of days, reports surfaced that South African DeeJay Kriel was vacating the IBF minimumweight crown. Kriel was supposed to defend his world title against Filipino Samuel Salva, the mandatory challenger, in the Philippines on August 24.

Another Filipino, Pedro Taduran (13-2,10KO’s), ranked number 3 by the IBF, is now being tapped to fight Salva (17-0,10KO’s) for the vacant title in an all-Filipino showdown possibly on September 7. Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions earlier won the purse bid to stage Salva’s title challenge.

The 22 year old Salva is currently training in Iligan City, Northern Mindanao. 

“Yes, they already told me I would be fighting another Filipino,” Salva told this writer, “I wanted to fight Kriel, take the belt away from the champion. But fighting Taduran is okay, I have no problem fighting another Filipino, whoever wins, a Filipino will be world champion.”

“I am currently sparring with Marco Rementizo. My training is going well,” Salva stated, “I will be moving my training camp soon to Cavite, the Survival camp.”

Rementizo (10-3,7KO’s) is a light flyweight with a 1W-1L record fighting overseas in Thailand. The Survival Camp in Cavite will provide Salva with a championship atmosphere during training; it is the home base of IBF super flyweight world champ Jerwin Ancajas.

“I feel this is my time. I will be world champion.” Salva concluded.

Salva earned the right to fight for the IBF title after beating another Filipino, Rene Mark Cuarto by unanimous decision last March. The undefeated Salva was a virtual unknown before appearing on this televised fight card in the Philippines.

The 22 year old Taduran will not be a pushover. He already has world championship experience, having lost to WBC strawweight world champ Chayaphon Moonsri a.k.a Wanheng Menayothin  (53-0,18KO’s) of Thailand last year by unanimous decision. His only other loss was a split verdict to Joel Lino three years ago. Taduran is currently the Philippine minimumweight champion.

 The first all-Filipino world title fight in history was held in Manila in 1925, when Pancho Villa successfully defended his title on points against Clever Sencio. The lives of both men would have a tragic end in the United States. Villa died ten days after losing a non-title bout to Jimmy McLarnin due to a worsening infection after having a wisdom tooth extraction. A year after his fight with Villa, Sencio was found dead in his hotel room due to brain hemorrhage after a decision loss to Bud Taylor.

Last year, we saw two all-Filipino world title bouts but both didn’t satisfy the casual fans. Jerwin Ancajas defended his IBF belt against Jonas Sultan by unanimous verdict. It was a relatively easy win for Ancajas but fans at ringside grew restless and discontented. Donnie Nietes and Aston Palicte fought for the vacant WBO junior bantamweight title and the bout ended in a controversial split draw. Both fights were held in the U.S. 

The all-Filipino title match-ups also paled in comparison to the memorable Mexican civil wars - Rafael Marquez vs Israel Vasquez and Marco Antonio Barrera vs Erik Morales are notable examples.

Will Salva vs Taduran have fans wishing for more all-Filipino battles?

PHOTO - From video of Samuel Salva's fight against Oliver Gregorio

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