(Tokyo) Japan’s Naoya Inoue became the undisputed super bantamweight (53-55 kg) world champion on Tuesday after knocking out Marlon Tapales in Tokyo in the 10th round, reclaiming the four belts in this category after doing the same in bantamweight a year ago.
Inoue, nicknamed “The Monster”, sent the Filipino to the mat with a powerful right, which pierced Tapales’ high guard, adding the WBA and IBF titles to his own WBC and WBO belts.
The Japanese, who remains undefeated with 26 wins and 0 losses, including 23 KOs, becomes only the second man to unify all four world titles in two different weight classes.
The American Terence Crawford was the first to do so by beating his compatriot Errol Spence for the four welterweight belts in July.
The 30-year-old Inoue needed just two fights to become the undisputed super bantamweight king. He beat the American Stephen Fulton in July, during his debut in this category, to capture the WBC and WBO belts.
Tapales, who beat Uzbek Murodjon Akhmadaliev by split decision in April to win the IBF and WBA titles, suffered while trying to protect himself from the reach and power of the formidable Japanese during most of the fight.
The 31-year-old Filipino sees his record improve to 37-4 including 19 KOs.
In total, Inoue has been titled in four different categories with light flyweight in 2014 and WBO super flyweight from 2014 to 2018, in addition to bantamweight and super bantamweight.
