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Philippines, 11 Feb 2026 |
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MASAM SPORTS 29: MARLON TAPALES WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE MURODJON AKHMADALIEV VS. RONNY RIOS WINNER By Maloney L. Samaco PhilBoxing.com Wed, 02 Feb 2022  Former World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight champion Marlon Tapales will have to wait for the delayed world title shot after the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Association (WBA) have agreed that Ronny Rios should be the first to challenge IBF and WBA super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev. Tapales earned a mandatory position for the IBF title after stopping Japan's Hiroaki Teshigawara in a super bantamweight title eliminator last December 11, 2021. Tapales knocked out Teshigawara in the second round after decking him three times at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The IBF ordered Akhmadaliev to defend his belt against Tapales right after his victory. However, the WBA also ordered Akhmadaliev to defend his belt against WBA No. 1 ranked contender Rios. Both organizations then arrived at a consensus that Rios should be given the priority for the title shot before Tapales. The latest decision urged Sanman Promotions CEO JC Manangquil to keep Tapales busy before the lucrative match with the winner of the Akhmadaliev-Rios championship fight. “We will give Marlon one fight, either a non-title or an interim IBF title fight. Maybe in May,” Manangquil was quoted by SunStar Cebu. Even if Tapales will be fighting a tune-up bout or an interim title fight, a win is a must for him to earn the right to face the winner of the Akhmadaliev-Rios title fight. Tapales, age 29 years from Tubod, Lanao del Norte, has been dreaming of getting back into the world championship. He won the WBO bantamweight title by 11th round KO of Thailand's Pungluang Sor Singyuin on July 17, 2016 in Ayutthaya, Thailand after flooring him twice. He has now a record of 35-3 with 18 knockouts. Akhmadaliev has an unblemished 10-0 slate with seven knockouts and has twice defended his unified titles since securing the belts from American Danny Roman by split decision on January 30, 2020 at the Meridian at Island Gardens, Miami, Florida, U.S. His latest fight was a twelve-round unanimous decision win over Chile's Jose Velasquez last November 19 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Velasquez replaced WBA mandatory challenger Ronny Rios who was tested positive for COVID-19 just a week before the scheduled fight. On April 3, Akhmadaliev scored a fifth-round knockout victory over IBF mandatory challenger Ryosuke Iwasa of Japan in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The 27-year-old Akhmadaliev is a southpaw fighter from Namangan, Uzbekistan and now trains in Indio, California under the watchful eyes of Joel Diaz. As an amateur, he won a silver medal at the 2015 World Championships in Doha, Qatar and bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics as a bantamweight. Rios, age 32 years, from Santa Ana, California, U.S. challenged then World Boxing Council (WBC) super bantamweight champion Rey Vargas but lost via unanimous decision in August 26, 2017 at the StubHub Center, Carson, California. Rios has a record of 33-3 with 16 knockouts. He stopped Mexico's Diego De La Hoya by sixth round knockout to win the WBC-NABF and vacant WBA Gold super bantamweight titles on July 13, 2019. He won over Colombia's Hugo Berrio by fourth round knockout on November 9, 2019. Then he defeated another Colombian Oscar Negrete by UD10 on February 13, 2021. The decision to conduct the Akhmadaliev-Rios match was announced when the purse bid hearing was conducted for the IBF mandatory title defense against Tapales, the No. 1 contender for the title. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.  |
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