THE Philippines lost another one of its world champions after Rene Mark Cuarto was dethroned by Mexican challenger Daniel Valladares of his International Boxing Federation (IBF) minimumweight belt via a close split decision in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico on Saturday (PH time).
Two judges scored it 116-111 and 115-112 in favor of Valladares, while the other judge saw it the other way around with a 114-113 score for Cuarto.
Valladares started out the fight strong and dictated the distance.
Cuarto started to heat up and exchange blows with the Mexican challenger in the second.
The 25-year-old Cuarto started to land solid right punches on Valladares in the following round.
In the fourth Valladares suffered a gash on the corner of his left eye following an accidental clash of heads.
Valladares found his rhythm and seemed to control the fight in the next three rounds.
Cuarto retaliated in round eight and landed some combinations.
Cuarto suffered a huge blow in the 10th after he was deducted a point after several warnings for the tape of his gloves to be fixed.
The 28-year-old Valladares made a huge impression on the judges after finishing the 12th round strong.
Cuarto dropped to 20-3-2 with 11 knockouts, while Valladares improved to 26-3-1 with 15 knockouts.
Following Cuarto’s loss, the Philippines only has one champion left — undefeated World Boxing Council (WBC) featherweight king Mark Magsayo.
Magsayo is scheduled to defend his belt against unbeaten former world champion Rey Vargas on July 9 in San Antonio, Texas.