Highlights! Inoue KOs Tapales For Second Undisputed Championship

After unifying the bantamweight titles, Naoya Inoue has done it again, unifying the super featherweight belts with a rousing win over Marlon Tapales in Tokyo, Japan.

Naoya Inoue has done it again, knocking out Marlon Tapales in the 10th round to become the undisputed champion of the 122 pound division. Tapales held the WBC and WBO junior featherweight titles, while Inoue came into the bout with the WBA and IBF titles. Inoue is now the undisputer junior featherweight and bantamweight champ.

Inoue dropped Tapales in the fourth round and again in the tenth, The end came off a partially blocked right hand that put Tapales to one knee, where he was counted out at 1:02. It was a game performance from the Filipino fighter, but Inoue was just too much for him.

Compubox had Inoue outstriking Tapales 146-52 overall, and 114-43 in power punches. Tapales had just a 17% connect percentage in comparison. Beyond the numbers, though, Taplaes came back from being knocked down in the fourth to bring the fight to Inoue. It was a hell of a war between these two and quite the Christmas present for combat sports fans.

Take a look at the finish and the highlights below:

So what’s next for Naoya Inoue? After the fight he confirmed that his plan was to defend his super bantamweight world titles. The most likely candidate for that would be WBC mandatory challenger Luis Nery … if Nery can get licensed in Japan after past drug and weight issues.