The long-awaited crack at the title of Los Angeles-based Filipino southpaw Marlon Tapales will take place in March or April in the United States, MP Promotions said yesterday.

Sean Gibbons, who runs the affairs of the Manny Pacquiao-owned outfit, told Daily Tribune that efforts are being exerted to secure an 11 March date but an 8 April date is also being considered with Texas as venue for the mandatory defense of International Boxing Federation super-bantamweight ruler Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan.

"We would know by next week the other details for this fight," Gibbons said as the do-it-all boxing man and the New Jersey-based sanctioning body are due for a talk.

Tapales, 30, parades a 36-3 win-loss record with 19 knockouts.

He briefly held the World Boxing Organization bantamweight crown and is now campaigning in the talent-laden 122-lb ranks where Japanese Naoya Inoue, the undisputed world bantamweight king, is also headed.

Akhmadaliev, holder of an immaculate 11-0 slate with eight knockouts, is already in training mode in his Indio, California, training camp.

Tapales, who has been residing and training in the Los Angeles area, is on a three-fight winning streak.

The camps of Tapales and Akhmadaliev reached an agreement a few days ago after months of being in a tug-of-war.

Plans are afoot that Tapales and the other Filipino boxers based in America to train under one roof in Las Vegas.

That way, there would be no problems about hiring sparring partners since mo9st of the fighters are fighting in the 118 and 122-lb ranks.

Also on the cusp of getting world title fights are Jade Bornea and Vincent Astrolabio.

Bornea is a regular training partner of Tapales in Hollywood while Astrolabio is coming off a key victory in Las Vegas, earning him a sure shot at the soon-to-be-vacated IBF throne.

Bornea is now the mandatory challenger to Fernando Martinez, the Argentine strongman who beat Jerwin Ancajas twice last year for the IBF super-fly plum.