Photo: Marlon Tapales/FB

By Shawn De Guzman

Marlon Tapales couldn’t sustain the good start and seemingly lost steam in the end, dropping a unanimous decision loss against former Japanese champion Yukinori Oguni at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan on Friday.

The former unified super bantamweight champion struggled against Oguni’s slick jabs and sharp straights before absorbing a booming body shot that seemingly took the air out of the Filipino at the seventh round.

Tapales managed to weather the pressure from Oguni and keep himself standing but the veteran pug was never the same from that point as he was significantly slowed down by the body blows.

Seeing his opponent hurt, Oguni jumped on the opportunity and completely outboxed the gassed out Tapales to complete the huge upset as the judges scored 96-94, 97-93 and 98-92 in favor of the 37-year-old Japanese.

With the win, Oguni revived what seemed to be a flickering chance for a title shot and improved to a 24-4-3 record with nine knockouts following a mixed results of two wins, two losses and two draws in his last six matches.

Tapales, on the other hand, not only dropped on a 41-5 slate but is also surely sliding in the rankings of the super bantamweight division where he is rated in the top three in the three sanctioning bodies.