HOT FILIPINO PROSPECT MARLON TAPALES ALL SET FOR HIS AMERICAN DEBUT
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 22 Apr 2011
LOS ANGELES ? Young Filipino flyweight prospect Marlon Tapales is all set for his American debut on May 6 in the undercard of the Diego Magdaleno / Bernabe Concepcion headlined ESPN Friday Night Fights at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on the eve of the Pacquiao vs Mosley mega boxing event.
Tapales, 18 and a native of Lala, Lanao del Norte in Mindanao who has so far fought in the remote places in the Philippines to amass a 16-1-0 (5KO) record, arrived here Tuesday night and was immediately got a taste of big time boxing when during his first day of workout at the Wildcard Gym Wednesday he was confronted with a deluge of media people with tons of camera equipments jostling for a space to cover the Philippines' most famous boxer's media day.
?I'm really excited,? Tapales would say with a tinge of innonce and awe, this time mingling with Pacquiao team members and friends and Pacquiao himself at Pacquiao's Palazzo apartment later in the evening and who cracked those within hearing distance when Dr Ed de la Vega told him ?I will be your cutman? and he answered with ?Hwag na po, nagpagupit na po ako (Don't bother, I had just a haircut).?
Tapales, whose fighting style is in the mold of Gerry Penalosa and Z Gorres, last fought in Dalaguete, Cebu on Feb. 6 where he dispatched Charlie Cabilla in the first round. Tapales, who is currently managed by Pacquiao confidant Rex 'Wakee' Salud and Lanao's Bong Yap, got rave reviews from boxing experts as a potential world-beater including Penalosa himself who said that Tapales ?is a world champion in the making.?
Tapales was accompanied here by his trainer Juanito Ablaca and another U.S. debutant Allan Tanada and is still awaiting word of who will be his May 6 opponent other than the infamous TBA.
Top photo: Tapales (R) poses with Manny Pacquiao at Pacquiao's Palazzo apartment in Los Angeles Wednesday night.
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