Pedro Taduran and Daniel Valladares managed to produce a Fight of the Year contender in their condensed slugfest.

What their title fight headliner failed to produce, however, was a winner by night’s end.

A cut over the right eye of Valladares forced an early halt to their strawweight title fight, which ended in a majority decision draw after four furious rounds of action Saturday evening in Guadalupe, Mexico.

Valladares was ruled a 39-37 winner on one scorecard, overruled by matching scores of 38-38 even.

The verdict leaves Philippines' Taduran with his strawweight title still intact.

Monterrey's Valladares established his presence in the opening round, catching the defending titlist with clean right hands while Taduran sought to counter with straight lefts in his first title defense along with his second career fight on the road—both coming in title bouts. The furiously-paced bout was temporarily slowed to a crawl midway through the opening round as an accidental clash of heads left Valladares with a gruesome cut over his right eye.

It would ultimately provide the cause for the early ending, though not before three more rounds of high octane action.

Both fighters sought to take the lead in round two. Taduran connected with lead left hands, targeting the cut over Valladares’ eye. The tactic forced the normally aggressive Valladares to take a step back and fight from the outside, although that didn’t last very long at all. The streaking contender found his way back inside by round’s end, catching Taduran with quick right hands to disrupt the Filipino’s rhythm.

A phone booth’s distance was all the space needed for the pair of flyweights in round three, producing terrific two-way action largely at center ring. Taduran continued to get through with left hands, though often leading himself open for counter rights from Valladares. The closest either came to hitting the deck occurred near the final minute as Valladares’ knees buckled after catching a straight left.

Neither fighter knew that round four would be the last of the fight, but they certainly fought as if it were the case. Punches never stopped flying, except when time was called for the ringside physician to examine Valladares’ gushing cut. The ruling was that he’d give him the rest of the round before re-examining, which was all the motivation needed to go to war.

Taduran was game for the cause, digging in on a body attack before coming back with straight lefts upstairs. Valladares countered with left hooks in the final minute of the round, which Taduran absorbed well and responding with a left uppercut. The visiting southpaw landed two clean left hands to end the round, including one shot which briefly stunned Valladares.

Confusion ensued in between rounds, as the fight doctor decided Valladares’ cut was too severe for the fight to proceed any further. Taduran darted off of his stool in celebration as his team believed a stoppage win came of the moment.

To their chagrin came the clarification that the bout was heading to the scorecards due to ending on a foul. It became an official bout since four rounds were completed, although the stalemate on the cards had the same effect as if it were ruled a No-Decision.

Valladares remains unbeaten in his past 12 starts, although the draw verdict leaves him without the belt he’d hoped to claim as his record moves to 22-1-1 (13KOs).

Taduran registers the first defense of the strawweight title he claimed in a 4th round knockout of unbeaten countryman Samuel Salva last September. The feat came two fights after a failed title bid versus unbeaten top-rated strawweight Wanheng ‘The Real TBE’ Menayothin in August 2018. Saturday’s verdict extends his unbeaten streak to three straight as his record now stands at 14-2-1 (11KOs) with the draw.

The bout aired live on TV Azteca and ESPN Knockout. 

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox