Former world bantamweight king Marlon Tapales might end up fighting Mexican banger Cesar Juarez for the interim World Boxing Organization super-bantamweight title, Tapales’ chief handler Wakee Salud said the other day.
A fight for the interim title was mentioned as a possibility after Jessie Magdaleno pulled out of a Nov. 11 defense against the rugged Juarez after sustaining a hand injury during training.
Salud said American fight agent Sean Gibbons, a representative of Juarez, is working on a Juarez-Tapales interim showdown but Salud wants it on a later date.
“December would be fine with us,” said Salud from his home base in Cebu City, noting that Nov. 11 is too soon.
“Marlon won’t be ready for Nov. 11…imagine that’s a month from now,” he said.
Juarez, 26, is best remembered by Filipino fight fans as the wild-swinging pucncher who almost beat Nonito Donaire in 2015.
Since losing to Donaire to points, Juarez has rebounded and defeated three Filipinos, including the highly-regarded Albert Pagara.
Tapales, 25, lost his WBO 118-lb title on the scales in Osaka last April but went on to stop Japanese Shohei Omori in the tenth round. Despite the win, the title was declared vacant as per WBO rules.