I am wishing for this to be John Riel Casimero hehehehe but I speculate that this will Luis Nery to prepare Inoue's entry for boxing in Las Vegas.
he can choose to fight Casimero first, in Japan, and if he wins again, he could proceed with his last fight in the division with Luis Nerry in Las Vegas. This Casimero fight has been long due, their trashtalking started when the fight was cancelled due to covid restrictions, but it didn't resume when everything was back to normal.
I also saw an interview from Casimero saying that Tapales knows he has no chance of winning after round one, so all he does is just tighten his defense because that's the only way to survive longer. Casimero even mentioned that if he was there, he would be able to give Inoue a fight, he even beat one of the best bantamweight which was Tete in just 3 rounds, so he is the only Filipino who can beat Inoue.
So this is what I like Inoue vs Casimero, biggest fight next year.
Casimero was wrong, however. Marlon Tapales was trying to win the fight and had a better performance than expected. There was only 2 rounds where Tapales became more defensive. Those rounds was when he was using a philly shell and did not throw much punches. But for much of the fight Tapales tried to punch Inoue. It also appeared that Tapales could reach the decision until he was knocked out which was shocking because Tapales did not appear tired or weak.
In any case, do you know what would be better than fighting Casimero in Japan? It would be fighting Casimero in Las Vegas hehehehehe.
I do agree though, I mean after the first knockdown on round 4, we thought that Tapales is done, but look at what he did, he go toe to toe and he had some good shots, like the upper cut and that straight right hand if I'm not mistaken.
Unlike other boxers that Inoue face, when they felt the power, they just want to survived but they can't run the full 12 rounds.
12 rounds could be what Tapales wanted, but he gets tired and because he has soften up by Inoue already.
They fight is actually good on which we do really be able to see a real fight and not really just that Inoue's opponent keeps running and this is something we do see different and i could say that a huge respect for Tapales.
It was such a good fight and yes there are lots of people who had been anticipating for this fight to only last up for 4 rounds or 5 on which yes it did happen that he had been knocked down into those rounds
but we've seen about adjustments made by Tapales on which i could say that this is something commendable. He had been able to last up further rounds despite of being beaten up and its true that
he do able to land up several uppercuts which it did break into Inoue's defenses too. It is really that he lack up some power and lack up of follow ups because he wont really be able
to defeat that monster without having those counters but of course it would be needing some power into it which we do see its really that lacking.
Still a good and worthy fight to watch on and its not really that boring since we could really be able to see that both fighters are giving their best.