The action or lack thereof got so repetitive by the middle rounds that at one point Berridge dropped his hands completely and dared Taihia to come at him, waving to the crowd to draw on their support.
While it was hardly a satisfying performance for the big punching 'Butcher', his aggression and willingness to engage made him the clear winner on the three judges score sheets with tallies of 99-94, 97-95 and 98-93.
The southpaw retained his NZPBA light heavyweight belt.
"You can't hit someone when they're running all the time," Berridge said after the bout.
After years of trash talk and bad blood for a battle that was postponed several times for various reasons, the two boxers did show each other respect, shaking hands after the decision was read.
However, Berridge still took umbrage at Taihia's unwillingness to engage after all the pre-fight hype.
"I'll be there' he said," Berridge posted on Facebook.
"Most boring fight that I've fought, got the win, thanks to everyone that showed up."
Sections of the crowd were not happy with the defensive spectacle, although Berridge's trainer Cleve Langdon took the microphone after the interviews to remind the audience that all boxers take great risks when they enter the ring and Taihia had fought as well as he could.
The back-to-back wins over respected Kiwi boxers Taihia and Taranaki's Sam Rapira is a good return to form for Berridge, who had lost three of his previous four fights - two of them overseas bouts with world-ranked opponents taken at short notice, and the four-round final of the Super 8 tournament against Christchurch's Reece Papuni (13-2)
The Berridge camp had been angling towards a rematch with Papuni in a standard-length fight, but may now consider looking elsewhere after the Cantabrian suffered a TKO defeat to Australian Faris Chevalier (11-1) in Mansfield, Queensland on October 9.
