World junior featherweight champion Marlon Tapales will start his quest to unify the four belts here in Baguio.
Boxing sources said that IBF and WBA world super bantamweight king Marlon Tapales will start his camp here the second week of November for a month training in his bid to beat Naoya Inoue on December 26 in Japan.
Tapales is expected to train at the Shape Up boxing gym at Cooyeesan where eight-time world champion Manny Pacquiao used to train.
Tapales is the super underdog when he faces Inoue who is the 1/10 favorite to unify the four belts.
Tapales won the WBA and IBF straps when he decided erstwhile champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev last April 23.
The Monster Inoue, meanwhile, stopped WBC and WBO champion Stephen Fulton in the eighth round last July 23 and considered as one of the biggest fights of the year rivalled only by the Terence Crawford – Errol Spencer, Jr., which the former won to unify all welterweight crowns.
Inoue’s foes previously in the bantamweight division including the Filipino Flash Nonito Donaire has not gone the distance. He vacated all his belts to move to the super bantamweight (junior featherweight) early this year. He is also aiming to become the second undisputed king in two divisions after Crawford.
It is yet the biggest fight for a Filipino fighter since Donaire.
Tapales is the lone Filipino boxer with a world belt. Pigeon Lobien
