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Philippines, 04 Feb 2026 |
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MARLON TAPALES: HEART AND CHARACTER By Rene Bonsubre, Jr. PhilBoxing.com Thu, 28 Jul 2016  Marlon Tapales simply refused to become a statistic. He did not plan to be victim number 21 in Pungluang Sor Singyu?s list of beaten Filipino foes. What he did was not easy. Getting up from two knockdowns in the fifth, hurt by body shots and firing back. His performance epitomized Ernest Hemingway?s grace under pressure. That is something you cannot teach in the gym. Heart and character are the stuff champions are made of. The fight ended like a Hollywood movie. The underdog challenger, fighting on the champion?s turf, coming back to win by TKO in the 11th round. His team celebrated a rare victory in Thailand as the new champ raised the WBO world bantamweight title belt. LOOKING BACK: I posted a philboxing column article last December 13, 2010 entitled NEW FACES, NEW PROSPECTS, NEW HOPE wherein I named seven prospects who I thought had the potential to make it big. They were Marlon Tapales, Marco Demecillo, Arthur Villanueva, Merlito Sabillo, Genesis Servania, Dodie Boy Pe?alosa Jr, and Mark Anthony Geraldo. Before Tapales? title win, it was only Sabillo from that list who had a short lived stint as world champion in 2013. Marlon made it two out of seven, not bad if you consider that if it wasn?t for Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire, local boxing would have been in a sorry state. The first time I got to see Marlon Tapales up close was in April of 2010. Promoter Rex ?Wakee? Salud invited me to watch his new prospect in action in Lanao del Norte. Tapales was challenging Warlito Parrenas for the Philippine light flyweight title. I wondered along the way if Tapales was really that good that I had to travel far to see him. I was not disappointed. His counterpunching brought back memories of a young Gerry Pe?alosa. Parrenas? nose was spurting blood when the fight was stopped. I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed Tapales? fights in Cebu. He was not a product of any media hype and only a few of his fights wound up on television. The 24 year old Tapales, who fights out of the RWS gym of Cebu, is now 29W-2L, 12KO?s. If memory serves me right, Wakee Salud was in Thailand when Manny Pacquiao and Malcolm Tu?acao dethroned Thai world champions. It is not easy to win a world title fight in that country, the list of Filipinos who lost to Thai champs is frustratingly long. Pungluang, who is known for beating AJ Banal at the MOA Arena four years ago, drops to his fourth career loss, 52W-4L,35KO?s. For the past few years, Tapales was just another unknown face in the crowded Cebu boxing scene. No one would approach him for photos. Only the most informed boxing scribes recognize him. We can only hope that he will finally get the accolades and attention that he truly deserves. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..  |
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