Marlon Tapales, the country’s lone reigning world boxing champion, will get back in training mode after a two-month break.
For winning the World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation super-bantamweight straps in San Antonio, Texas, last 8 April, Tapales was given an eight-week break so he could spend some time with his family in Cebu City.
The break was much-deserved since he had not seen his wife and daughter for close to two years as he based himself in the United States in the pursuit of fighting for a world title.
His sacrifices paid off lst April when Tapales carved out a split decision win over the heavily-favored Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan to win the WBA-IBF 122-lb belts.
Though there is no scheduled fight at the moment, Tapales knows he has to begin reporting for gym work in preparation for a huge fight before the end of 2023.
Tapales is already set to face Naoya Inoue in November or December assuming the Japanese beats Stephen Fulton of the US this 25 July in Tokyo.
That clash with Inoue is already agreed upon by both camps provided Inoue, who is moving up in weight after his reign of terror of bantamweight, gets past Fulton.
In fact, when Inoue meets Fulton, the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization ruler, Tapales will be at ringside at the Ariake Coliseum so he could drumbeat his duel with Inoue in the event of a big win.
JC Mananquil, the promoter of the WBA-IBF kingpin, said the daily grind will be held at the SanMan Boxing Gym in General Santos City.
“During his vacation, Marlon stayed with his family in Cebu and they even traveled to Boracay,” Mananquil said.
But the party’s over and Tapales will soon find himself getting up early for roadwork and afternoon training gym sessions.
When he watches the Inoue-Fulton encounter, Tapales will surely be rooting for Inoue for obvious reasons.
Inoue is the bigger name and Tapales is guaranteed a lucrative purse if they end up colliding towards the end of the year.
But given Filipino southpaw’s winning mentally, he won’t be there mainly for the money.
Handing the WBA-IBF titles on a silver platter to Inoue is out of the question.
