Marlon Tapales takes a break during his training at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. | Photo from Tapales’ Facebook page.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Former World Boxing Organization (WBO) world bantamweight champion, Marlon “Nightmare” Tapales is inches closer to earn his second shot for a world title against WBA and IBF world bantamweight king Murodjon Akhmadaliev this year.
This was after his promoter, JC Manangquil of Sanman Boxing Promotions, said that they were already drafting a contract for Akhmadaliev’s team to sign to formalize the world title clash.
Manangquil was in Cebu earlier this week to attend the turnover ceremony of the brand-new WBO world minimumweight belt to one of his boxers, Melvin Jerusalem who recently dethroned Masataka Taniguchi in Japan.
“The Marlon Tapales-Akhmadaliev is already a done deal. Pero wala pa sila nagsign sa contract. (But they still had not signed the contract) We drafted a contract already and it’s almost done,” said Manangquil.
The fight date is on April 8, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas, the United States.
Manangquil said that they would formally announce the world title bout next week once the contract would be formally signed.
It can be recalled that Tapales and Akhmadaliev’s camps reached a deal to avoid the purse bid earlier this month.
This will be Tapales’ first world title shot since 2017 after knocking out Pungluang Sorsingyu in Thailand to wrest the WBO world bantamweight title.
Tapales has a record of 36 wins with 19 knockouts and three defeats and is on a three fight winning streak, with two of his victories happened in the United States.
Meanwhile, Akhmadaliev has an unbeaten record of 11 wins with eight knockouts. He already defended the WBA and IBF world titles three times since 2020.
Tapales, according to Manangquil, is already in the United States, particularly at the famed Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles since last year to train for the upcoming world title bout.
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