TAPALES STOPS OMORI IN 11TH IN BACK AND FORTH FIGHT (PHOTOS)
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 23 Apr 2017
OSAKA, Japan ? Unseated WBO bantamweight champion Marlon 'The Nightmare' Tapales, still showing the effects of his weight ordeal, dug deep inside to stop Japanese contender Shohei Omori in the 11th round in front of a raucous Japanese crowd at the full-house Edion Arena here Sunday night.
Tapales sneaked in a wicked left uppercut that hit squarely Omori's jaw in the 10th round and followed it up with an overhand right that sent Omori tumbling to the canvas for the first time. As Tapales went in for the kill, the bell saved Omori from being knocked out and extended the fight for another round. As the bell rung in the 11th, Tapales immediately went after Omori who was still obviously groggy. Tapales trapped Omori in the neutral corner and connected with a left-right combo that pushed referee Celestino Ruiz to waived off the contest. Tapales's camp was told later that Omori suffered a broken jaw.
After the 10th round, all three judges had identical scores of 95-94 giving Tapales ahead by the slimmest of margins.
The win somehow mitigated Tapales's agony of losing the title after he failed to make the bantamweight limit during Saturday's weighin.
After a feeling out first round, Tapales took control of the second round by unleashing his overhand rights and straight lefts that put Omori on the defensive. Tapales continued to put the pressure on Omori in the third but a hard left by Omori in the fourth, neutralized Tapales's offensive.
In the 5th round, Omori connected hard on the body of Tapales who appeared to get hurt. Omori trapped Tapales in the corner a threw a barrage of body shots that almost sent Tapales to the canvas. Tapales said later that he was hurt with the body shot but it was also part of their plan to play hurt to lure Omori to give his all.
In the 6th round, both boxers appeared to get winded but Tapales connected with a couple of hard rights.
In the 7th, Omori had a change of strategy and came in charging at Tapales as the bell rung that sent Tapales backing up against the ropes and made the pro-Omori crowd alive. Tapales however connected with hard counters that stopped Omori's onslaught.
In the 8th and 9th rounds, the action slowed down tremendously and both boxers threw measured punches with both their faces dripping with blood from give and take punishment until that sneaky left uppercut by Tapales suddenly changed the direction of the fight in an instant.
Tapales, from Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte, has improved his record to 30-2-0 with 13 stoppages while Omori suffered his 2nd defeat, again from Tapales, and dropped to 18-2-0 with 13 knockouts. Omori also lost to Tapales via 2nd round stoppage during their eliminator bout in December, 2015.
The WBO world bantamweight title remained vacant as Omori failed to win it outright. Zolani Tete of South Africa is now the interim champion of the same belt after he defeated Filipino contender Arthur Villanueva in the UK Saturday night.
Fighting on the Tapales-Omori undercard, Filipino Neil John Tabanao lost to Teiru Atsumi via UD in their 6-round super featherweight fight. Atsumi knocked down Tabanao in the second round.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dong Secuya.
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