WBA clears Marlon Tapales to fight for undisputed, orders Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs Tomoki Kameda eliminator

There’s nothing standing in the way of newly crowned WBA/IBF super bantamweight champion Marlon Tapales challenging the winner of Stephen Fulton vs Naoya Inoue for undisputed glory. The sanctioning body announced today that they’d approved “The Maranding Nightmare’s” request, citing the potential of a four-belt unification as “a powerful reason to admit it for the sake of boxing.”

While that situation resolves itself, former champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev (11-1, 7 KO) has been ordered to face mandatory challenger Tomoki Kameda (40-3, 22 KO) in a final eliminator. I’ve been vocal about my distaste for chucking deposed champions right back into eliminators, but “MJ’s” loss to Tapales was narrow enough that this isn’t particularly galling.

“El Mexicanito” has been rather quiet since falling short in a 2019 title consolidation against Rey Vargas, racking up four wins against underwhelming opposition. The most notable of those came in 2021 against Yonfrez Parejo, which the WBA press release refers to as “a semi-final eliminator.” Still, the guy can scrap, and Akhmadaliev looked bizarrely mortal last time out.