The rise of the Maranding Nightmare
THE first time I saw Marlon Tapales (29-2, 12KOs) fight live was on an undercard match at the Cebu City Watefront Hotel and Casino back in August 2013.
He was up against Frederix Rodriguez and I caught only the last four or five rounds.
Though he won the bout handily, Tapales didn’t exactly pump up my excitement odometer. But I did have the impression that he fought a bit like Manny Pacquiao with that shifty, lefty stance.
Little did I know that that young man was a world champion in the making.
SOR SINGYU. The last time I also saw Thai champion Purluang Sor Singyu he was dishing out a beating on AJ Banal in a fight where he handily lost the first few rounds.
In that fight, Sor Singyu had previouly weighed over the bantamweight limit and was forced to run for over an hour all over the cavernous SM Mall of Asia Arena.
I was impressed when he made the weight and registered a blood pressure reading of 120/80 immediately after.
I thought this guy was really in tremendous shape and indeed he was, as in that fight he took all of “Bazooka’s” firepower and dished out a frightening beating, in return.
FAST FORWARD. To two Sundays ago. After that Rodriguez fight, Tapales was able to rack up a 5-0 streak, the last one an impressive TKO victory over the undefeated Shohei Omori of Japan.
In the interim period, Sor Singyu had gone 9-2 since the Banal victory. He had lost the WBO belt he annexed in the Ba- nal fight to Paulus Ambunda in his very next fight , but had somehow regained the belt despite a stoppage loss to Japanese star Tomoki Kameda.
THE FIGHT. Sor Singyu started out typically aggressive and the hometown crowed egged him on, cheering his every offensive outburst.
Tapales had his moments with his right hook and left straights, but it was Sor Singyu who was the busier fighter and who dictated the pace of the bout.
Things looked bleak when Tapales suffered two knockdowns in the fifth round and I thought he got lucky when a third was ruled a slip.
But then Tapales seems to have an inexhaustible supply of reserves just like his idol Pacquiao, and amazingly was able to shake off the previous round’s beating and by the end of 6th round was fighting back and exchanging with the champion on even terms.
An apparent weakness of Sor Singyu based on the Kameda loss appears to be the body, although I would hasten to add that any fighter would probably have succumbed to that picture-perfect liver shot unleashed by Kameda in the 7th round.
Whatever the case, Tapales became resurgent in the second half of the fight and slowly and surely broke down the Thai champ by targeting the body and mixing it up with his patented left straights and right hooks.
They say a river cuts through a mountain not because of its power but because of its persistence and so it was with Tapales.
The end came in the 11th round courtesy of two knockdowns that came in succession, the first via a left straight, the second a body shot.
It wasn’t particularly due to any debilitating shot but rather from an accumulation of blows from Tapales that sapped the fight of the Thai champ.
And just like that, we now have four boxing world champions.
Congratulations to the “Maranding Nightmare” for keeping the Golden Age of Philippine boxing alive.
VERBATIM. “Who’s on my radar? I don’t have a radar.” --Newly crowned WBO/WBC champion super lightweight champion Terence Crawdord.
LAST ROUNDS. Are on my cousin Edwin Tiu and little cherub Isabela Grace Marquez, who are celebrating their birthdays this week. Cheers!