October 9, 2011
LILOAN, CEBU, PHILIPPINES
Up-and-coming 19-year-old Filipino southpaw, OPBF#5 super-flyweight Marlon Tapales (19-1, 6 KOs), 117, impressively defeated Japan-based Ugandan Martin Mubiru (8-3, 5 KOs), 117, by a unanimous decision (97-89 and 96-90 twice) over ten hard-fought rounds on Sunday in Liloan, Cebu, Philippines.
Tapales, who previously served as sparring partner for the current WBC 105-pound champ Kazuto Ioka in Japan, floored the game opponent with a left uppercut in the fourth and with a southpaw right hook in the sixth. Mubiru fought back hard, but Tapales was still fresh and ferocious enough to hurt the fading Ugandan down the stretch. Mubiru had been evaluated highly thanks to his upset eighth round stoppage of ex-Korean champ Big Yoo (AKA Hayato Kimura) last October, but Tapales proved too much for him chiefly because of his superior stamina in later rounds.
Promoter: Wakee Salud.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi.
(10-9-2011)