Trainer reveals Tapales adjustment

Newly-crowned super WBA and IBF superbantamweight champion Marlon Tapales was stunned by two jolting left straights from Murodjon Akhmadaliev in the seventh round then fought cautiously to preserve an early lead, barely surviving a late rally to pull off a win on a split 12-round decision in San Antonio, Texas, last weekend.

Murodjon nearly floored Tapales in the 12th round as he desperately tried to save his belts but ran out of time. The three judges Sergio Caiz of California, Jose Roberto Torres of Puerto Rico and Javier Alvarez of Texas scored the last four rounds for Murodjon. Tapales, however, had enough of a cushion to negate the Uzbek’s assault down the stretch. Caiz and Torres had it both 115-113 for Tapales while Alvarez saw it 118-110 for Murodjon.

MP Promotions head Sean Gibbons said it was a convincing win. “One judge was out of his mind at 118-110, should be banned, fired,” he said. “I have no idea what this guy was talking about. I saw the fight of two halves. I saw Marlon clearly winning the first half and I thought he won two rounds of the second half. So 7-5 clean for Marlon absolutely. Marlon waited a long time for this fight, waited a year. He felt really good, he felt his jab was amazing. He was in great shape and everybody did their job, he did his. That was the outcome, the verdict.”

Tapales used a jarring right jab to keep Murodjon off balance. The Uzbek’s slow start provided the opening for Tapales to attack aggressively. In the second round, two left uppercuts to the chin rocked Murodjon who was also staggered by a right hook and an overhand left. Murodjon landed two left straights in the first minute of the seventh frame and Tapales retreated to his corner. Tapales recovered to put Murodjon on the defensive in the eighth before taking his foot off the pedal the rest of the way, abandoning the jab that was his go-to weapon at the onset.

“Marlon absorbed a hard punch in the seventh but handled it well,” said trainer Ting Ariosa. “He recovered and we believe he won the eighth so we had to protect the lead, making sure we wouldn’t make a major mistake. Murodjon wasn’t able to throw lots of punches because Marlon connected with his jabs effectively. Marlon hurt him early so Murodjon wasn’t able to move around a lot and couldn’t deliver volume punches. We saw Marlon commanded a formidable lead in the first eight rounds so we stuck to the original plan of being patient and protecting the lead. Our gameplan was to outbox and hurt Murodjon from start to finish patiently, go for timing and precision all the way.”