as strong as Inoue–Arum

AUNIFICATION fight between Filipino super bantamweight unified world champion Marlon “The Nightmare” Tapales against newly-crowned World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue could be scheduled for December.

Top Rank chief Bob Arum confirmed the coming fight to BusinessMirror on Wednesday adding that the duel will be at the Tokyo Dome.

Tapales, Arum and international matchmaker Sean Gibbons were at ringside at the Ariake Arena where Inoue became a world champion in his fourth weight class Tuesday night by stopping American Stephen Fulton in the eighth round.

[Marlon] Tapales is a big puncher, very, very strong and fast, and it’s going to be a sensational fight,” Arum, 91, said. “[Naoya] Inoue is a great fighter but Tapales is also a great fighter so it’s going to be a 50-50 fight for both.”

“Inoue looked very tremendous after the fight, but Tapales was there and he thinks that he can compete with Inoue. Tapales wants the fight,” Arum said. “We can put 50,000 people in their unification fight here in Japan.”

Tapales told the crowd that he wanted to fight Inoue to prove to himself that he’s worthy of being a world champion.

Tapales (37-3 record with 19 knockouts) is the reigning International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association super bantamweight champion. He beat Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan via split decision last April to seize the belts. Josef Ramos against their rivals but also in the face of a jammed arena of over 30,000 animated local fans who rooted for the hosts to win.

It was left to Australian coach

Alen Stajcic to elaborate and explain what both players said.

Of heart and spirit, this team has got it in spades. In all those factors, they are 10 of 10,” said Stajcic, who tried to hold back his own emotions during the post-match conference, while relishing their huge achievement. “

They [the Filipinas] are one of the best teams in the world for unity, collective effort and playing above themselves as a unit. When you see that and you know what you have, that is what makes it really special,” the twotime World Cup veteran coach stressed.

He amplified the significance of the win in just the squad’s second game of the World Cup, comparing the feat to what other countries had to go through in attaining one.

For New Zealand I think it was their 15th or 16th match or five or six World Cups,” he recalled of the hosts’ record of futility until

GILAS Pilipinas will make its way to the 55,000-capacity Philippine Arena on August 25 and Smart Araneta Coliseum on August 27 and 29 with one thing in mind—defend its homecourt at all cost.

The Philippines will play against the Dominican Republic, Angola and Italy in Group A tasked with winning twice to advance to the second round of the Group Stage where the top two teams from Group B—South Sudan, Serbia, China and Puerto Rico—will be waiting.

Given the comparatively compact capacity of the Big Dome and the SM Mall of Asia Arena, which will house the they scored a breakthrough 1-0 triumph over Norway at Eden Park in Auckland last week.

While watching Colombia and [South] Korea before our game, the commentator said they have one win each. Korea has been at least in five or six world cups and Colombia three or four,” he pointed out.

“ To think that we have done it in our second match in our first World Cup. You can’t really appreciate how far we’ve come back in the pack compared to where those countries where in terms of their football history, their culture and investment,” the Australian tactician explained.

L ikening the New Zealand game to a boxing match, Stajcic said “that there was no doubt if this was a boxing match, they [the Ferns] were the better team but we earned that win with other qualities,” he said.

O r in a word: “puso.”

ARANETA: FILIPINAS ALL FIRED UP VS NORWAY PHILIPPINE Football Federation (PFF) president Mariano “Nonong”

Araneta is confident that the Filipinas are all fired up when they close the group stage against world No. 12 Norway at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the Eden Park in Auckland. “ They really know what’s at stake and they are hungry for more history,” Araneta told BusinessMirror on Wednesday. “Just like what I said before, they didn’t just come here to show faces, but to win.”

A v ictory would shove the Filipinas to the knockout round of 16.

Imagine Filipinas in the roundof-16 knockout stage? That’s going to be our first time and they will surely go for it,” Araneta said. “But so far, we haven’t been discussing the Sunday game as yet as everyone’s savoring the moment of our first World Cup win.”

But no pressure. They have already won a game in the World Cup, which was what we aimed for in the first place,” he said. “If it’s God’s will that we win again, then that will be extraordinary. But we will pray.”

With Josef Ramos