A farmer, a butcher and a taxi driver will be on top of the ring on Tuesday for the biggest fight of the year and possibly, one of the biggest upsets in boxing annals and history.
And they are not even joking, these improbable ragtag mix of former farmer Marlon Tapales with a former butcher Ernel Fontanilla as coach and a former taxi driver Clisthenes “Ting” Ariosa as cutman going head-on against unbeaten Japanese Naoya Inoue and his legions of fans at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
Dubbed as “Monster,” Inoue is the superstar, touted by his promoter Bob Arum as someone who could even be greater than Manny Pacquiao in the future.
Such hype and build-up to the fight has installed Tapales as a huge 9-1 underdog. Conversely, Inoue is a 25-1 favorite, which means that a bet of $2,500 will win only $100 in Las Vegas.
With all the available belts in the super-bantamweight division at stake, it’s a legacy fight for Tapales, a rare chance at immortality.
The atmosphere would be similar to the Alamodome 20 years ago when an obscure Manny Pacquiao faced superstar Marco Antonio Barrera in Texas. Not too many expected an upset but Pacquiao has contributed a bit in trying to level the playing field.
Pacquiao believes that Inoue can be beaten.
Three months ago, the 45-year-old boxing legend gave instructions to Fontanilla on how to defeat Inoue. Should Fontanilla and the whole team have done their homework, applying it and winning on top of the ring is yet another story.
Tapales, 31, knows what lies ahead and has dedicated a whole life fighting after deciding to leave his farming town of Tubod, Lanao del Norte early on. Both farming and boxing require the same qualities and sacrifices and Tapales has prepared for war for all the marbles featuring boxing’s rare diadem and a chance of being called “legendary.”
For Fontanilla, dissecting Inoue’s lines of attack and how to counter them is like gutting down a cow’s carcass to pieces within minutes.
Before becoming a boxer, Fontanilla was working as a matador at slaughter houses in Caloocan.
Pacquiao’s trainer and bosom friend Restituto “Buboy” Fernandez took Fontanilla as his ward and imparted to him lessons that Pacquiao, himself, instructed in training.
He scored nine wins with seven knockouts, four losses and two draws as a boxer. But before taking coaching as his bread and butter, Fontanilla worked as a technician for a pharmaceutical company in Los Angeles.
Also called the “Assassin,” Fontanilla divided coaching chores sparingly with boxing man-turned taxi driver Ariosa when the team was just starting out.
Ariosa also worked as a receptionist for a caregiving facility for 15 years in Culver City.
Now 65, the stocky former Philippine national team coach will be doing the cutman chores while adding inputs to Fontanilla.
Ariosa is no stranger to big-time challenges. He is the secret weapon of the team, having learned skills in all aspects of the game including “pointing,” a term used by cockfight aficionados in bringing out the best in a fighter when the starting bell has sounded.
To name a few, Ariosa has led the successful campaigns of Leopoldo Cantancio, Nolito Velasco, Leopoldo Serantes in the glorious years of amateur boxing in the Philippines.
He has also coached Fontanilla, the fighter, once.
Fontanilla and everyone else have contributed to the current success of Tapales as they would double as nutritionists, choosing the right meals at the right time.
Larry Wade has been tapped as the strength and conditioning coach of Team Tapales.
With the steady and solid support of the SanMan group of brothers Jim Claude “JC” and John Ray “JR” Manangquil and Dexter Tan, the battle lines have been drawn and everyone is ready.
