Tapales Is Ready To Knock Out Inoue Following Pacquiao’s Advice
Marlon Tapales is ready to knockout Naoya Inoue in their undisputed super bantamweight clash.
Tapales, the current WBA and IBF champion, is the underdog, and he seeks to give Inoue his first defeat. A victory for both men puts them in the history books. Tapales can wipe the aura surrounding Inoue as ‘The Monster’ continues to move up in weight, getting wins that have made him a four-division champion.
Inoue knows that a win makes him undisputed in a second weight class in the four-belt era alongside Terence Crawford. But to come out victorious, Tapales is targeting a stoppage. He has knocked out three of his last four opponents, showing he is in great form ahead of the fight.
Tapales On Inoue
“I am motivated from the heart and with the joy to emerge victorious in a resounding way. [And] I am ready to beat Naoya Inoue, I am going to knock him out. I consider Naoya to be a great, skilled and intelligent boxer,” noted Tapales. “But I know all the hard work I put in during training camp in Las Vegas and the Philippines will have me ready for this moment. I am well aware that I am not the favorite according to the oddsmakers. But, I don’t care about that, the result will be different than what they think,” Tapales said
In order to achieve that, Tapales enlisted the help of Manny Pacquiao. The eight-division champion made his name from knocking out fighters as he moved up in weight. Pacquiao has a record of 62-8-2, as 39 of those wins were by stoppages.
Tapales knows that a win puts him in the history books among Filipino boxing greats. Manny’s accomplishments are out of his reach, but a win over Inoue is against arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
Tapales On Manny
“I am grateful to have this opportunity to have my own name on history in the Philippines. There will be a lot of people watching this fight in the Philippines. I have a lot of friends and I know so many people that like boxing. Manny will be watching. He gave me advice on how to fight and how to beat him. Hopefully I can execute it. I want to show them the real Tapales and show them I belong as a top contender and can fight the best of the best, pound for pound,” Tapales stated
Inoue also has his eyes on history. The Japanese admitted that he aims to become a five-division champion. But the first focus is to come through with a win over Tapales. If he does that, the aim is to defend those titles before considering whether he will move up. After all, there is only so much he can go up in weight. The boxer came up from light flyweight to 122 pounds. So, will he end up moving up too much and getting beat? Time will tell.
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