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Marlon Tapales is done waiting for his overdue title shot.
The IBF mandatory title fight between the Philippines’ Tapales and unbeaten WBA/IBF junior featherweight titlist Murodjon Akhmadaliev will now head straight to a purse bid in lieu of a second 30-day negotiation period. The fight was re-ordered by the IBF on December 4, met by a demand by Tapales’ team for the sanctioning body to call an immediate purse bid.
The session will take place on December 20 at IBF headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey, open to all IBF-registered promoters. The minimum accepted bid is $200,000, with Uzbekistan’s Akhmadaliev (11-0, 8KOs) due 65 percent of the winning amount as the reigning champ.
Akhmadaliev was initially ordered to enter talks with Tapales (36-3, 19KOs) on January 4, with the two sides given until February 2 to reach a deal. That order was rescinded, once it was realized the WBA was still first in the rotation of mandatory title defenses.
Tapales’ side argued at the time that Rios lost his place in line after testing positive for Covid ahead of his originally scheduled fight with Akhmadaliev last November 19 in Manchester, New Hampshire. The WBA eventually got its way, with Akhmadaliev facing and defeating Rios in a twelfth-round stoppage on June 25 in San Antonio, Texas.
The win came at a cost, with Akhmadaliev suffering a broken left hand. His team—Matchroom Boxing and World of Boxing—used the injury to their advantage once the IBF put its mandatory title fight back in play in September. The 30-day period met not with a deal in place but with Akhmadaliev filing a medical exception right at the October 25 deadline.
It bought another five weeks for the unbeaten Uzbek before the fight was ordered earlier this month for a third time. Tapales’ team—a massive group consisting of MP Promotions, Sanman Boxing, Shapiro Sports, and Viva Promotions—wasn’t interested in waiting any longer than necessary, contacting the IBF to bypass the negotiation period and call for a purse bid, which either side is permitted to do at any time.
Akhmadaliev’s prior IBF mandatory title defense was honored last April 3, when he scored a fifth-round knockout of IBF mandatory challenger Ryosuke Iwasa in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The bout was his first in his home country since an amateur tournament in 2017, one year after claiming a Bronze medal for Uzbekistan in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Tapales, a 30-year-old southpaw from Kapatagan, Philippines, punched his way back into title contention following a second-round knockout of Hiroaki Teshigawara. The bout served as a title eliminator at the request of Tapales’ team. Tapales rose to the occasion, flooring Teshigawara three times in just 3:06 worth of ring action in forcing the stoppage in their December 11 clash.
It was a far more memorable ending than his previous title eliminator, two years almost to the day of his win over Teshigawara.
Tapales suffered an eleventh-round stoppage to Iwasa in their December 2019 eliminator in Brooklyn, New York, which ended a twelve-fight win streak. He has since won three straight heading into his first career title fight, including a second-round knockout of Jose Estrella in a stay-busy affair on May 14 at Dignity Health Sports Park.
Per IBF purse bid rules, neither fighter is permitted to enter an agreement for another bout during the period for the ordered title fight.