By REYNALD MAGALLON
Marlon Tapales may have lost his unified belts but he was glad to put up a fight against a better fighter who continues his ascend to boxing immortality in the now undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue.
The Filipino southpaw managed to exceed expectations when he held his ground and even recovered from after a fourth round knockdown to almost drag the match to distance against the heavily favored Japanese known as “The Monster.”
Tapales was even landing occasional crackling upper cuts and body shots before the punishment of tanking most of Inoue’s firepower eventually took a toll on him with the Japanese champion delivering the finishing blow with a vicious right hand that sent Tapales down in the 10th round.
In the end, Tapales conceded that he fought a far superior fighter, simply couldn’t keep in step with his speed and firepower.
“I was impressed by Inoue’s technique as a boxer, and I was surprised by his speed,” said Tapales, whose record dropped to 37-4 with 19 KOs. “He was very fast and I just wasn’t able to catch up with him.”
Tapales had been putting up a great fight that even Inoue, who became the only second man – behind Terrence Crawford – to go undisputed in two weight classes, was surprised when he went down late in the 10th round.
“He kept a poker face throughout and didn’t show that my punches were doing him any damage, so I was quite surprised when he went down in the tenth round,” said Inoue who now holds the Filipino fighter’s International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association crowns to add to his own World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization belts
“Shout out to Tapales for fighting me. He was a tough opponent,” he added.
Tapales vowed to come back stronger from the defeat and eyes return to the ring next year especially after failing to defend his championship belts for the second time in his career.
The pride of Lanao Del Norte had previously won the WBO bantamweight belt but failed to defend it after failing to make weight against Japanese challenger Shohei Omori. Tapales then worked his way up and took the unified super bantamweight crown of Uzbek Murodjon Akhmadaliev in an upset split decision in April this year.
