Marlon Tapales. | Facebook photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Former two-division world champion Marlon “Nightmare” Tapales retained his position in the latest International Boxing Federation (IBF) world super bantamweight rankings.
This as the 32-year-old former WBO world bantamweight and WBA/IBF super bantamweight champion retained the No. 3 spot in the IBF’s latest rankings.
This means that Tapales is inching himself closer to get another world title shot in the IBF, while positioning himself for a world title eliminator in the World Boxing Council (WBC) being its No. 2 contender.
In the IBF, Tapales will likely ascend to the vacated No. 2 spot in the coming months, while Australian Sam Goodman occupy the top spot in the latest rankings.
With all that in mind, Tapales boosted his chances to land a rematch against the undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue who holds all four world titles in the division.
Besides the IBF and WBC, Tapales is also highly-ranked in the World Boxing Association (WBA) at the No. 5 spot.
After losing to Inoue by a 10th round knockout in their unification showdown in December 2023, Tapales racked up back-to-back wins to bounce back from that setback.
Tapales clinched the vacant WBC Asian Continental super bantamweight title in Manila last May against Thai Nattapong Jankaew via a swift first round knockout.
In September, Tapales visited Cambodia to defend his title against Indian Saurabh Kumar where he won by a 10-rounder unanimous decision.
Tapales now holds a 39-4 (win-loss) record with 20 knockouts.