Inoue, Tapales to collide for undisputed jr. featherweight title

'The Monster' will attempt to unify all 4 belts in 2nd division Dec. 26

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Naoya Inoue, already a lock Hall of Famer and widely viewed as no worse than No. 2 on the pound-for-pound list, will have the opportunity to join undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford — the only man with him in the pound-for-pound conversation — as boxing’s only male boxer to be a two-division undisputed champion in the four-belt era.

Inoue, the reigning WBC/WBO junior featherweight champion, and WBA/IBF titleholder Marlon Tapales will square off to unify the four belts and produce the first undisputed 122-pound champion in division history on Dec. 26 (ESPN+) at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Top Rank announced late Tuesday night to coincide with the announcement Wednesday afternoon in Japan, where Inoue is a superstar.

“The sensational Naoya Inoue astounds with every performance,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said in making the announcement. “We are witnessing an all-time great fighter in the prime of his career.  He has a very difficult task at hand on Dec. 26 against a tough, powerful Filipino champion in Marlon Tapales, but I am confident ‘The Monster’ will pass this test with flying colors.”

Inoue-Tapales comes as no surprise as it has been expected since Inoue dominated Stephen Fulton en route to an eighth-round knockout to take his belts on July 25, also at Ariake Arena, and Tapales, who was ringside, then joined him in the ring to get the ball rolling toward their deal.

At a news conference after defeating Fulton, Inoue made it clear what he wanted next.

“I wish to unify all the four world belts within this year,” Inoue said.

The winner would become the first undisputed champion of the multi-belt era in division history and Inoue could join Crawford as a two-division, four-belt champion. Crawford, who also did it at junior welterweight in 2017, knocked out Errol Spence Jr. to unify the four titles at 147 pounds on July 29, just four days after Inoue hammered Fulton to give the pound-for-pound-obsessed a hard choice to make.

Four-division champion Inoue (25-0, 22 KOs), 30, who moved to 20-0 with 18 knockouts in world title bouts with his destruction of Fulton, unified the four belts at bantamweight via one-sided knockout of Paul Butler to add the WBO title to the other three belts last December. Inoue, who has also won titles at junior flyweight and junior bantamweight, then vacated and moved up in weight to fight Fulton.

Tapales (37-3, 19 KOs), 31, a southpaw from the Philippines and a former bantamweight titleholder, has not fought since claiming a split decision against Murodjon Akhmadaliev to take his two junior featherweight titles in San Antonio in April in an upset. He will be an even bigger underdog against Inoue.

“I fully comprehend the magnitude of this fight,” Tapales said recently. “Becoming the undisputed champion is the ultimate goal in any boxer's career, and I am prepared to give my all to achieve that. Naoya Inoue is an exceptional fighter, but I have unwavering confidence in my abilities and the hard work I have put into my training. I will leave everything in the ring and prove that I am the best in the division.”

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