Just like Pacman when he fought Barrera for the first time, no one believed that he would win but he shocked the boxing world with that KO win.
But Manny Pacquiao at that time was showing a good winning rate in defending his Super Bantamweight title. His name is already popular and he is considered to have a potential to be a great boxer different from the status of Marlon Tapales today. Naoya Inoue is really on a different level and it's really hard to accept that Tapales has no advantage to anything against him.
Tapales is really up against a beast. I hope that the long preparation to this fight will somehow boost Tapales strength, enough to hurt Inoue's steady defense. But on the other hand, with this long preparation too, Inoue also got an advantage to boost his own advantage too.
Man, how I wish we had the odds back that day when he fought Barrera. I was not yet into gambling at that time or if I did it's just a bet against a friend. The real numbers on gambling sites though, I don't know. I bet Manny was also an underdog at that time.
But you are right bro, Manny was already one of the good fighters before he fought Barrera and this is different.
Marlon Tapales is a technical boxer which means he must avoid all the haymakers that Naoya Inoue will throw or else he will see himself lying on the canvas. But I do like to give my full support for Tapales here and I won't even hesitate to put a bet under his name. Being a Filipino brother is still stronger than being a fan of his opponent.
Inoue all set now, ready for that unification fight with our very own Marlon Tapales.
https://twitter.com/naoyainoue_410And if by chance Inoue win this and become unified champion again, he will be my fighter of the year.
Although there are a lot of fighters like David Benavidez winning against Plant and then Andrade, and we also have Haney against Loma (controversial), and then winning his first belt at 140 against Regis Prograis, I don't think it will hold against the path that Inoue did for this year, destroying the best champion at 122 lbs in Fulton get's his two belt and then has a chance to unify against Tapales and then becoming 2x undisputed and unified champion at the bantamweight and super bantamweight, that is a big accomplishment.
But this is for another discussion.
Damn! Scary abs.
He was already the fighter of the year for me when he climbed the mountains in the Bantamweight division. What he did was not an easy feat, and he almost lost to Donaire back then with a bleeding face. He unified those belts with literally blood and sweat.
Just looking at him, I cannot find a weakness. His body is crazy and I bet those are like steel, he also has a tough chin. Tapales will need to work harder if he badly wants to defeat that dude. If this battle ends in the 12th round, Tapales might be the winner.