FORMER WORLD champion Marlon Tapales fights Japanese Hiroaki Teshigawara in a super bantamweight title eliminator set by the International Boxing Federation (IBF) next month in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The fight is set for either December 5 or 11 at a still to be determined venue in Las Vegas.
Tapales has been in the United States since late July preparing and training for his upcoming fight under the tutelage of Ernel Fontanilla and Lucas Sugar.
“This is my second chance so I cannot afford to lose here again,” Tapales, a 29-year-old southpaw from Tubod, Lanao del Norte, told BusinessMirror over the phone on Sunday from Los Angeles, California. “I want to be a world champion again.”
The former World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight champion suffered a devastating 11th round technical knockout loss to Japanese Ryosuke Iwasa last December 7, 2019, in Brooklyn for the interim IBF super bantamweight belt.
“It was a very painful defeat, but I have already moved on,” Tapales (34-3 win-loss record with 17 knockouts) said.
He is also supported by MP Promotions President Sean Gibbons.
“After this fight, I want to stay and continue my training here until I become a world champion again—that’s my goal,” he said. “I will give my best for this fight, I am motivated by the people around me who keep believing. I don’t want to fail them.”
Tapales defeated Thai Panya Uthok last July 27, 2016 via 11th round technical knockout in Ayutthaya, Thailand, to win the WBO belt. He was stripped of his title in April 23, 2017, because of being overweight limit but went on to beat Japanese Shohei Omori by technical knockout in Kyoto after that.
The 31-year-old Teshigawara is no patsy with his 22-2-2 win-loss-draw record with 15 knockouts.