Marlon Tapales, the former unified super bantamweight champion, is scheduled to make his first appearance in 2025. He will travel to Cambodia to compete against Jon Jon Jet on April 14.
Tapales, with a record of 39 wins and 4 losses, including 20 knockouts, experienced a defeat against Naoya Inoue in a fight for the undisputed 122lb title in late 2023. However, he has since regained momentum with two consecutive victories.
Hailing from the Philippines, Tapales started his professional boxing career at the age of 16 as a light flyweight in 2008. He achieved world recognition in the bantamweight division, notably defeating Pungluang Sor Singyu by an 11th-round knockout to win the WBO title in Thailand in 2016.
However, Tapales was stripped of his title on the scales before his first defense against Shohei Omori, despite later stopping Omori. Subsequently, Tapales moved up to the super-bantamweight division.
Adapting well to the new weight class, Tapales secured three knockouts in a row before facing Ryosuke Iwasa for the IBF interim title, where he suffered a late stoppage loss to his Japanese opponent.
Following this, Tapales achieved another streak of wins by knockout, with three second-round stoppages, earning him a chance to challenge Murodjon Akhmadaliev, the unified WBA and IBF world champion.
In a significant upset, Tapales defeated the previously undefeated Akhmadaliev by a very close split decision in Texas, claiming Akhmadaliev’s position for a fight against Inoue for the undisputed championship.
Despite a valiant effort, Tapales was unable to overcome Inoue, although he presented a tough challenge to the pound-for-pound king until the fight concluded in the 10th round.
In the past year, Tapales has rebounded with a quick first-round knockout of Nattapong Jankaev in his home country and a comfortable unanimous decision victory over Saurabh Kumar in Cambodia. Now, the two-division world champion will return to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for his second fight in a row, headlining a Sanman Boxing event.
The 32-year-old Tapales is currently ranked among the top four in the world by the WBC, WBA, and IBF. His upcoming opponent, Jon Jon Jet, has only one loss in his record, which occurred outside of Asia when Luke Boyd defeated him in the first round of their 2019 fight in Australia.
Jet, known as ‘Scissorhands’, has knocked out his last four opponents in Thailand and previously held the WBC Asian Continental title, which Tapales now possesses. However, Jet has been inactive recently, having fought only four rounds since August 2023.
The undercard will feature highly-rated minimumweight contender Joey Canoy, who will face Minh Phat Sam of Vietnam for the WBC International belt at 108lbs.
The event is scheduled for Monday, April 14 in Cambodia. Tapales aims to position himself for a shot at the vacant 126lb titles when Inoue potentially moves up to the featherweight division.
