WBC & WBO super bantamweight champion Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue weighed in at 121 3/4 lbs while his opponent, IBF & WBA champ Marlon Tapales came in at 121 1/4 pounds at Monday’s weigh-in for their undisputed 122-lb championship fight this Tuesday, December 26th at the Ariake Arena, in Tokyo, Japan.
The Inoue vs. Tapales event will be shown live on ESPN+ on Tuesday, December 26th at 3:00 a.m. ET/midnight PT.
Surprisingly, there hasn’t been much promotion for the Inoue-Tapales event in the U.S., which might have to do with it taking place the day after Christmas and at 3:00 a.m. ET.
There aren’t too many casual boxing fans that will be up at that hour wanting to see this fight. Only the hardcore fans will be up that early for what shapes up to be a mismatch in Inoue’s favor.
A Monster Mismatch or Underdog Upset Brewing?
Inoue (25-0, 22 KOs) will have a tremendous advantage in hand speed against the incredibly slow 31-year-old Tapales (37-3, 19 KOs), who is easy to hit.
This fight has mismatch written all over it, and it might not last more than four rounds tops. Tapales’ hand speed is like a glacially slow heavyweight.
What he has in his favor is his size. When he rehydrates, he looks massive, and he packs a punch of a 140-pounder due to his size. If Inoue stands in front of Tapales and lets him land his slow shots, it could be bad for the Japanese superstar.
Tapales has been knocked out twice, and he’s coming off a grueling war against IBF/WBA 122-lb champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev last April in San Antonio, Texas.
Marlon defeated Akhmadaliev by a twelve round split decision by the scores 115-113, 115-113 for Tapales, and 118-110 for Akhmadaliev. It was a hard fight to score because Tapales was waiting and waiting, not letting his hands go and looking so slow.
Where Akhmadaliev went wrong in this fight was by fighting at a slow pace, not attacking Tapales relentlessly as he’d normally done in his other fights at the pro. He gave him too much respect and got outworked in a boring fight with little action.
Inoue’s recent victories:
Stephen Fulton: TKO 8
Paul Butler: TKO 11
Nonito Donaire: TKO 2
Aran Dipaen: TKO 8
Michael Dasmariñas: KO 3
Jason Moloney: KO 7
Inoue, 30, would be more popular in the States if he fought there and focused on taking risks by moving up to the lightweight division to face the likes of Gervonta Davis, Shakur Stevenson, and Vasily Lomachenko. U.S. boxing fans don’t pay much attention to the super bantamweight division; hence, tomorrow night’s Inoue vs. Tapales fight has received scant publicity.
