Jonathan Taconing successfully defends OPBF title against Fajardo

Hard-hitting world rated southpaw Jonathan Taconing successfully defended his OPBF light flyweight title against fellow Filipino Jomar Fajardo Saturday night at the Elorde Sports Complex in Parañaque.

The names of the the combatants alone suggested a slugfest, and both lived up to expectations giving one of the best fights in local boxing to date.

The bout ultimately boiled down to Taconing's left hand, combinations and body punches versus Fajardo's hard right shots and relentless pace.

It only took a couple of minutes before both fighters started to brawl in the first round. The defending champion was getting the better of the exchanges in the early going until an accidental headbutt in round five opened a cut near Taconing eyes.

Sensing blood, Fajardo pushed the tempo even harder in round 6, throwing hard combinations with bad intentions from all angles. Taconing recovered rather quickly and managed to hurt Fajardo twice with a left cross and left uppercut the following round.

The barn burner continued until another accidental clash of heads resulting to another cut on top of Taconing's left eye forced referee Virgilio Garcia to step in and stop the fight at the 2:55 mark of round 10.

The scorecards were 98-91, 97-91 and 97-91 all in favor of Jonathan Taconing.

The technical decision nod marked Taconing's second fight this year, improving his record to 22-2-1 with 18 knockouts while Fajardo fell to 14-9-2 with 7 knockouts. - RAF, GMA News