Veteran Filipino warrior Marlon Tapales did not just win a pair of world titles on Sunday in San Antonio, Texas, he also came enticingly close to a high-profile duel with Japanese ‘monster’ Naoya Inoue.
The 31-year-old Tapales came through with a split-decision victory following a hard-fought, 12-round contest against Murodjon Akhmadaliev to bag the World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation World Super Bantamweight belts.
Widely considered as one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world, the undefeated Inoue is moving up to super bantamweight to challenge Stephen Fultong for his two other major titles in the division—the World Boxing Organization and World Boxing Council—on July 25 in Tokyo, Japan.
The title duel was originally slated in May, but reset to the new schedule after Inoue reportedly suffered an injury during training.
Tapales’ co-promoter Sean Gibbons told DAZN’s Chris Mannix that “We will be ringside for that fight.”
Tapales, now 37-3 with 19 knockouts, would be watching intently from the sidelines, but he could also be facing a return bout with his victim from Uzbekistan, whom he inflicted with a first defeat in 12 fights as a pro.
Their bout deserves another try with two judges scoring it 115-113 for Tapales and another scoring it lopsidedly for Akhmadaliev, 118-110.
Tapales’ awkward style put the former Olympian off-target most of the time, especially in the earlier rounds, where the Filipino’s jabs, uppercuts and left hooks effectively did the job.
Although Akhmadaliev looked to recover by applying more pressure in the latter rounds, the two judges found it too late to reverse the outcome.