SAN ANTONIO, Texas—Whenever hunger strikes Filipino fighter Marlon Tapales, he reaches out for his smartphone and searches for his favorite mukbang (eatcast) videos to satisfy his intense craving for food.
In the final days of his training, boxers like Tapales begin to dramatically slow down on their food intake to make weight during the all-important pre-fight ritual.
Tapales faces Uzbekistan’s Murodjon Akhmadaliev for the World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation super-bantamweight title belts this Saturday at the Boeing Center at Tech Port.
Though his team controls his diet, Tapales still is afforded a semblance of enjoyment.
“He still eats,” Brendan Gibbons said on Wednesday as Tapales was doing the mitts with trainer Ernel Fontanilla inside his room at the Hyatt Regency at the Riverwalk.
Unlike most boxers, Tapales still manages to eat hard-boiled eggs and take occasional sips of hot water.
But the amount he will get to eat will be minimized as he enters the last stretch of his buildup.
The division limit is 122 lbs and when he tipped the electronic scales after his light training session, his handlers clapped their hands.
With two more days before the official weigh-in, Tapales was just 1.8 lbs over and is right on track in his bid to get rid of excess baggage.
“The guy’s even eating,” JC Mananquil, the boxer’s promoter, said, stressing that if he was struggling going down to 122, he would have not been allowed to take those tiny sips of water and the serving of eggs.
Still, Tapales admits that hunger is slowly consuming him.
“Once I feel very hungry, I watch videos of mukbang and just imagine that I was the one eating,” Tapales said, smiling.
“Even in my dreams, I see myself having mukbang.”
The official weigh-in takes place on Friday morning at 9 at the Hyatt Regency followed by the ceremonial (publicity) “weigh-in” at 1 p.m.
By the time Tapales shows up for that afternoon event, he would have already consumed a plateful of rice, downed a big bowl of bulalo (bone marrow soup), and his new favorite, carrot juice.
Thinking about that made Tapales’ eyes light up.
But a victory over Akhmadaliev will bring a different glow to his face.
