Right in the first match on the Super Bantamweight, Naoya Inoue has successfully captured the No. 1 position. He not only defeated Stephen Fulton, who holds the two WBC and WBO Worlds, but also defeated the opponent with an overwhelming posture. After punching Fulton in the 8th half, Inoue rushed to attack and caused the referee to stop the match early.
Shortly after the match with Fulton closed, Naoya Inoue had a meeting with Marlon Tapales. The Philippine boxer is the one who holds the remaining two championships in the Super Bantamweight weight, WBA (Super) and IBF. Tapales won the two belts in April, when he won Murodjon Akhmadaliev by calculating the score after 12 rounds.
Marlon Tapales's professional boxing performance is 40 matches, including 37 victories (19 no) and 3 defeats. He is considered to be one of the highest -class boxers of the Philippine Boxing after Manny Pacquiao retired. Holding the two world championship belts is the best testament to the strength of Tapales.
It is likely that the match between Inoue and Tapales must take place in early 2024. It was the time when both could rest after the past matches, and aim for the plan to unify all the 4 most prestigious championships in the weight of Super Bantamweight. However, it is likely that Inoue's team will continue to pull the match to Japan.
One of the factors that helped Inoue maintained a series of 25 -winning matches (22 Ko) was because he was playing at home in recent matches. The last time Inoue played abroad was in June 2021, when he Ha Khong Michael Daskmarinas in the third half to protect the two IBF and WBA (Super) Bantamweight championship belts.