10 Things You Need To Know About The Tapales vs. Inoue
1. When: Tuesday, Dec 26th 2023
2. What time: The televised event starts 5am EST and the main event ringwalks will start approximately 7am EST
3. What channel / stream: ESPN+
4. Where: Ariake Arena in Tokyo (15,000 person venue)
5. 31 year old Filipino champion, Marlon Tapales, stands at 5’ 4” with a 65” reach, and a record of 37 wins (19 KOs) and 3 losses. He is currently the WBA & IBO super bantamweight title holder (118 lbs - 122 lbs).
6. Japanese superstar, Naoya “The Monster” Inoue is born 1993 (30 years old), standing at 5’ 5” with a 67.5” reach, coming in with a record of 25 wins (22KOs) and 0 losses. He is currently the WBC & WBO super bantamweight title holder.
7. Naoya Inoue is the former undisputed bantamweight world champion (115 lbs - 118 lbs) and has since moved up a weightclas to super bantamweight which has been Marlon Tapales’ domain for the past five years.
8. This will be the first undisputed title match for super bantamweight, the winner of this fight will be the title holder of all 4 divisions: WBC, WBO, WBA, & IBO.
9. Naoya Inoue is currently ranked #1 in the world at super bantamweight and Tapales is currently ranked #2 at super bantamweight. However, Inoue is currently ranked #2 in the world for best pound for pound fighter, a win by Tapales will truly catapult his status as a professional boxer.
10. In addition, a win for Tapales will make him the first Filipino undisputed champion in the three- or four-belt era. On the opposite side of the ring, a win for Inoue will make him the 2nd male boxer to be an undisputed champion at two weight classes (bantam and super bantam).
Tapales versus Inoue! Each fighter is putting their 2 world titles on the line, winner takes all 4 and leaving the ring as the undisputed champion of the world at the super bantamweight division. Here is everything you need to know to not miss such a historic clash of two of the best boxers in the world.
Trade talk just got real. The U.S. is setting the stage for a new kind of economic clapback and the Philippines might get caught in the middle with a 17% import tariff coming this July. It sounds like something buried deep in a government PDF, but here’s the thing: this could mess with jobs, prices, military deals, and even how we as Filipino Americans move through the world.
So let’s decode what’s going on, why it matters, and what the ripple effects could look like for all of us navigating life between cultures.