A MONTH after dethroning Pungluang Sor Singyu as the WBO world bantamweight champion, Filipino Marlon “The Nightmare” Tapales will make the first defense of his newly-acquired crown against Japanese Takuma Inoue on December 30 at the famed Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
Reports from Philboxing.com confirmed the news after Tapales’ promoter Rex Wakee Salud announced it. According to the report, Salud and Joe Koizumi, Inoue’s promoter, has come to terms to make the fight happen.
Tapales (29-2-0 12KOs), the dynamite fisted 24-year old native of Lanao Del Norte, has received several offers to defend his title in London, Puerto Rico, Vietnam and Japan but Salud declined all the other offers and accepted the Japan fight for his ward.
Inoue is unbeaten with eight wins with two knockouts. His latest victim inside the ring was Filipino Froilan Saludar in a title eliminator for Tapales’s belt last Sunday night in Japan. Inoue won over Saludar by unanimous decision after 10 rounds.
Tapales, the once unheralded boxer based in Cebu, stunned the boxing world when he defeated Sor Singyu in Thailand last July via 11th round knockout.