JHACK Tepora and Marlon Tapales showed their hunger to become world champions again after winning convincingly on Sunday, June 2, 2019, at the Soboba Casino in San Jacinto, California.
Tepora, the former interim World Boxing Association featherweight champion, scored a dominant unanimous decision over Jose Luis Gallegos in his US debut.
Tepora stood in front of Gallegos the whole fight and threw some vicious combinations. Gallegos, however, was tough enough to finish the 10-round fight standing up.
All three judges scored the fight with identical scores of 99-91.
“I believe I had a good performance,” Tepora told SunStar Cebu. “I’ll be back training harder for my future.”
The 24-year-old Tepora said he won’t take any time off and will be training right away at the Wild Card Gym under coach Rodel Mayol.
Tepora, a native of Danao City, was supposed to make his US debut in January in a title defense against Hugo Ruiz as one of the main attractions of a Las Vegas boxing show headline by a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner.
Tepora disappointed a lot of his fans after weighing in 5.5 pounds over the featherweight limit and was forced to pull out of the fight. He more than made up for himself after making the contracted 127-pound weight limit and winning impressively.
Tepora remained unbeaten at 23-0 with 17 knockouts, while Gallegos dropped to 16-7 with 12 knockouts.
Tapales, in the meantime, knocked out journeyman Roberto Castañeda in three rounds.
Tapales landed a solid punch to the body and unleashed a flurry of punches that forced the referee to stop the fight in the 1:37 mark.
Tapales, ranked No. 4 in the World Boxing Organization (WBO) super bantamweight division, moved up to 33-2 with 22 knockouts, while Castañeda fell to 23-12-2 with 16 knockouts.
Mayol was pleased with what he saw with both Tapales and Tepora. He believes that Tapales, the former WBO bamtamweight king, is ready for another world championship fight. (EKA)