Is history beckoning for the 31-year-old prizefighter out of Mindanao?
Back in April, Marlon Tapales defied the odds to win the WBA and IBF world super bantamweight weight belts against the previously unbeaten Uzbek fighter Murodjon Akhmadaliev. In doing so, he gave the Philippines only its second current world champion behind WBO minimumweight kingpin Melvin “Gringo” Jerusalem.
He also put himself halfway towards history as the first fighter ever in the 122 kg weight class to unify all four world titles—WBA, IBF, WBC, and WBO—in the four-belt era.
Manny Pacquiao couldn’t do it. Neither could Nonito Donaire. Not even John Riel Casimero. And all three enjoyed relative success in the division.
Tapales will get his chance to outdo them all soon enough, and it could even come later in the year.
This developed after the WBA greenlit Tapales to pursue a voluntary title defense that all but paves the way for the Filipino to go after the winner of the Stephen Fulton-Naoya Inoue megafight on July 26. The fight, which will see The Monster move up two weight classes, will be for Fulton’s WBC and WBO belts—the two titles Tapales needs to make history.
The WBA acquiesced to the Tapales camp’s request because it specifically requested for the unification showdown, which the governing body deemed as “a powerful reason to admit for the sake of boxing.”
Of course, it will be up to Tapales’ team, Sanman Boxing, to secure that unification fight regardless of opponent.
In the meantime, it would be prudent on the part of Tapales to be in the lab as early as now because both Fulton and Inoue are among boxing’s truly elite fighters. And making history at either man’s expense will a great challenge for sure.
(GM)