Tapales is chasing history.
Ever since Filipino prizefighter Marlon Tapales won the WBA and IBF world super bantamweight titles over previously unbeaten Uzbek fighter Murodjon Akhmadaliev, he has made it known that he wants to unify the 122-pound division—something that has never been done in this weight class.
Tapales has made that abundantly clear, repeatedly saying he wants to face the winner of the Stephen Fulton versus Naoya Inoue superfight for the WBC and WBO titles.
After Inoue bamboozled Fulton in Japan, it looks like it will be him versus Tapales for a shot at history, with both fighters meeting up in the ring postfight and signifying their desire to get it on for the WBC, WBO, WBA, and IBF crowns.
And while The Monster was masterful in dismantling the erstwhile unbeaten Fulton, Tapales is not at all fazed—but he is impressed.
“Na-impress po ako. Magaling po si Inoue,” Tapales told Quinito Henson in his Playitright TV podcast.
The 31-year-old Lanao del Norte native also believes that he knows exactly what he needs to do in case a fight with Inoue is sealed.
“Gagawin ko ‘yung best game plan namin kay Inoue. Pero hindi ko pa masabi kung ano ‘yun,” Tapales added. “Pero alam ko po kung ano ‘yung pwede kong gawin para sa laban namin.”
Whatever Tapales knows in this case, it appears he learned a lot of it after watching compatriot Nonito Donaire Jr. take Inoue to the limit in their action-packed 2019 championship bout, where the Japanese champion needed a strong finish to fend off a spirited challenge from The Filipino Flash.
The potentially historic unification showdown, according to MP Promotions president Sean Gibbons, is likely to take place in December, also in Japan, where Tapales has won two professional fights already.
Gibbons is confident Tapales will make it three wins by the end of the year, noting how the Filipinas “has the tools to neutralize Inoue” and that The Monster’s defense “is very leaky.”
Of course, it remains to be seen if Tapales does, indeed, have the formula to give Inoue his first taste of defeat.