Tapales faces Japanese foe in November
CEBU CITY, Philippines—Former World Boxing Organization (WBO) world bantamweight champion Marlon “Nightmare” Tapales will square off against Japanese Hiroaki Teshigawara in an International Boxing Federation (IBF) super bantamweight title eliminator on November 27, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Most Filipino boxing fans know Tapales for staging a huge upset after knocking out Pongluang Sor Singyu to snatch the WBO world bantamweight title in Thailand in 2016.
The 29-year-old native of Tubod, Lanao del Norte is currently training in the United States. He has been seen training alongside boxing’s only eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and three-division world champion John Riel Casimero in the past few months.
Tapales is ranked No. 4 in the IBF’s super bantamweight division, or the 122-pound weight class, despite not being that active.
His opponent, Teshigawara of Sawa-gun, Japan, is ranked No. 3 while the second and first spots of the division ranking remain vacant.
Tapales, the former Rex Wakee Salud (RWS) banner fighter, has 34 wins with 17 knockouts and three defeats. His last bout was in December 2019 versus another Japanese, Ryosuke Iwasa, where he fought and lost via technical knockout for the IBF interim world super bantamweight strap held in Brooklyn, New York.
After that, Tapales went on an 11-month hiatus and returned with a TKO victory against journeyman Eden Sonsona in General Santos City.
Both Tapales and Teshigawara have not fought a single bout this year.
Teshigawara (22-2-2, 15KOs) last fought in October 2020 in Japan. He defended the OPBF super bantamweight title versus fellow Japanese Shingo Kawamura via TKO victory.
Tapales will be Teshigawara’s fifth Filipino opponent. In Japan, he already defeated Filipino boxers in Junny Salogaol, Jetro Pabustan, Jason Canoy, and Glenn Suminguit.
The winner between Tapales and Teshigawara will earn a world title shot versus the reigning and unbeaten IBF and WBA super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev (9-0,7KOs) of Uzbekistan.
/bmjo
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