Tapales Joins Exclusive List of Filipino World Superbantam Champs
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 09 Apr 2023
In defeating defending WBA-IBF unified super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev in what could be an upset of the Year candidate, Marlon Tapales also join an exclusive list of Filipino world champions in the 122 lbs division.
Tapales is only the fifth Filipino fighter to reign as world super bantamweight champion after Bobby Berna won our first as inaugural IBF titlist in 1984. And contrary to the claim of some, Marlon is not the first but our second unified world champion in the division after Nonito Donaire who won the IBF crown from Jeffrey Methabula to add it to the WBO title he won earlier.
However, Tapales is also among the few boxers who have successfully also won the super bantamweight title after reigning as world bantamweight champion. This exclusive list included Donaire, Lupe Pintor, Jeff Fenech, Rafael Marquez and Hosumi Hasegawa, among others.
The other Filipino fighters who also won the world championship in the super bantamweight class are Jesus Salud and Manny Pacquiao who won the IBF crown from Lehlo Lebwaba two years after moving up to the 122 lbs division straight from flyweight where he likewise reigned as WBC titlist from 1998-2000.
Berna lost his title in his first defense in South Korea while Salud was stripped of his WBA crown without making a defense.
Pacquiao was the most successful Filipino world champion of the division, making three title defenses all ending in knockout before moving up once again to the featherweights where he gained international acclaim with TKO win over Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003.
Donaire was relatively successful too, winning the WBO and IBF titles and making a few defenses before he ran smack against a prime Guillermo Rigondeaux and lost in their unification bout. Later he had another tenure as IBF titlist but failed in his first defense against Jessie Magdaleno on points.
The junior featherweight as the super bantamweight was known then had been in existence in the 1920s yet but was discontinued and was revived only in the late 1970s with Wilfredo Gomez as among the early world champions and the most dominant making the 122 lbs class as Waterloo for many a prominent bantamweight champions.
As unified WBA-IBF titleholder Tapales will have the chance to become the most successful of the lot as news have it that he will be fighting the winner of the Stephen Fulton- Naoya Inoue bout this July for the WBC and WBO belts with the undisputed world championship at stake.
That is if Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Promotion will not get in the way and demand an immediate rematch between Akhmadaliev and Tapales.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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