Guest
Naoya Inoue produced another performance of masterful destruction to become a two-weight undisputed champion, stopping Marlon Tapales in 10 rounds to add the IBF and WBA super bantamweight titles to his WBC and WBO belts. A little over a year ago, Inoue beat Paul Butler to become undisputed bantamweight champion and wasted no time in cleaning out the 122 lbs category. Tapales had more success than American Stephen Fulton, who Inoue obliterated in eight rounds in July, and recovered well from a fourth-round knockdown. However, a couple of heavy right hands that the Filipino partially blocked left him scrambled and unable to adequately respond to the count one minute and two seconds into round 10 at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena. Four-division champion Inoue is only the second men’s boxer in the four-belt era to claim undisputed status after Terence Crawford added welterweight to super lightweight dominance with his destruction of Errol Spence earlier this year. Before the fight, Tapales spoke of his desire to take Inoue into deep water but, like Fulton before him, he soon found that the home fighter’s physicality and power had travelled with him up the weight categories to a frightening degree. The southpaw visitor struggled to get his lead foot outside Inoue’s early on, leaving him open to the favourite’s jolting backhand. Tapales’ tendency to lean in also quickly looked fraught with danger as Inoue landed clipping hooks and uppercuts. The IBF and WBA ruler fought with the ambition of a champion early on but a pattern of one-way traffic emerged as Inoue’s movement and punch variety proved beguiling. In round four, a left the head disorganised Tapales and he tumbled under the follow-up assault. Handily for the 31-year-old, the bell sounded as he received the count and he made it back to his corner. From that point, Tapales tailored his approach impressively, employing a more languid front-foot defence, catching Inoue with a snaking upward jab and scoring to the body. On The Sporting News’ card, he took rounds seven and eight, although Inoue’s ring IQ was to the fore in the next session. He started to double up his sledgehammer rights throughout a punishing three minutes. Tapales reverted to the high guard he used earlier in the fight in the name of self-preservation, but it was no use. Two hammering Inoue rights off the jab left him disoriented on the canvas. He wanted to continue but Inoue’s magical power had cast its spell on his latest landmark night.
