YOKOHAMA, Japan – Even in defeat, Marlon Tapales’ stock rose in the boxing community.

MP (Manny Pacquiao) Promotions president Sean Gibbons asserted this on Wednesday, December 27, the morning after Tapales’ 10th-round knockout loss to Naoya Inoue in their super bantamweight unification bout at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

“His stock went up,” Gibbons told Manila-based sportswriters. “No one really knew Marlon [before]. Now they do.”

Acknowledging Inoue’s superiority, Gibbons admitted, “It was one-sided, but not like losing every round. He (Tapales) had his moments.”

According to Gibbons two judges gave Tapales some rounds, with only the third judge scoring it a shutout before Inoue caught Tapales with two solid rights that floored the Filipino, who failed to beat the count at the 2:06 mark of the tenth.

Tapales also got dropped in the fourth round, but shook it off and caught Inoue’s attention in the fifth, seventh, and eighth rounds with his counters.

Gibbons said a lot of people texted him, saying Tapales had a better defense than Stephen Fulton, whom Inoue knocked out in the eighth round to take the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization crowns.

In wresting Tapales’ World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation titles, Inoue became the undisputed at 122 pounds, duplicating his earlier feat in the bantamweight division.

Gibbons added that the comments on Top Rank’s Instagram account about Tapales were phenomenal.

Tapales sustained welts and bruises on his face but was otherwise unharmed.

SanMan Promotions head JC Manangquil, who manages Tapales, said they will spend two days in Tokyo before returning to the Philippines on Friday, December 29.

Tapales will take a break as Gibbons looks for a suitable fight that would, hopefully, put him back to the championship route. – Rappler.com