Marlon Tapales fights Ryosuke Iwasa for the vacant interim IB junior featherweight title on December 7, 2019. Leo Wilson, Premier Boxing Champions/File.
MANILA -- Marlon Tapales now has the chance to become the first Filipino undisputed boxing champion.
This, as the WBA has given the Filipino super bantamweight champion the go signal to take on whoever wins between Stephen Fulton and Naoya Inoue.
This gives Tapales, who holds the WBA and IBF straps, the opportunity to unify his titles with the WBC and WBO belts to be disputed by Inoue and Fulton.
The camp of Tapales has made the appeal to the WBA and the sanctioning body obliged, according to Boxingscene.
Tapales wrested the WBA-IBF crowns by edging Uzbek Murodjon Akhmadaliev via razor-thin decision last April 8.
Akhmadaliev, who held the titles since January 2020, was seeking a rematch but will have to wait given the WBA decision.