Marlon ‘The Nightmare’ Tapales won the International Boxing Federt (IBF) and World Boxing Association (WBA) ‘Super’ junior-featherweight titles following a split decision victory over Murodhjon Akhmadaliev from Uzbekistan at the Boeing Center in Tech Port, San Antonio, Texas, United States, on Sunday morning (South African time).
The three judges’ score cards read 115-113,115-113 and 110-118. The Filipino native is now a two-division world champion having been a World Boxing Organisation (WBO) bantamweight titlist between 2016 and 2017.
This is a massive loss for Akhmadaliev as he had positioned himself as a challenger to whoever wins between Stephen Fulton and Naoya Inoue. Fulton will be defending his World Boxing Council (WBC) and WBO junior-featherweight titles against the hard-hitting Japanese on Tuesday, 25 July in Tokyo, Japan.
