Johnny Tapia-My Crazy Life

[BoztheMadman]

One of the most talented, charismatic and tragic boxers in history, especially newer time, was Johnny Tapia, whose alias was “Mi Vida Loca”, my crazy life. Tapia was a born fighter and a warrior who became one of the best technical fighters of his generation, who possessed great boxing IQ and abilities, as well as toughness and fighting spirit. His only weakness was lack of greater punching power. He won world titles at super flyweight, bantamweight and featherweight and was a unified champion at the first weight class. Despite all these successes, his life was always marred with addictions and troubles and it contributed to him dying at only 45.
 

John Lee Anthony Tapia was born 13 February 1967 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Mexican American parents. His father vanished while his mother was pregnant with him and his mother was kidnapped and killed when he was eight, forcing his mother’s parents to take care of him. Much later, in 2010, Johnny would meet Jerry Padilla, who turned out to be his biological father and it turned out he had been doing time in jail. He started boxing as amateur, winning the 1983 New Mexico and 1983 and 1985 National Golden Gloves. He became a pro in March 1988, aged 21, and his first fight was a draw. He then started winning and would remain undefeated in 48 fights. In 1989, he beat the future WBA bantam champion, John Michael Johnson, on points in 8 rounds. In 1990, he won the USBA super flyweight title by stopping Roland Gomez by TKO11. Soon after that however, he tested positive for Cocaine and was away from the ring for three years. 
 

After returning in 1994, he first won the NABF title in July by TKO3 against overmatched Oscar Aguilar, before fighting for the vacant WBO title against Henry Martinez, who then had a record of 16-1-1. It was on 12 October in Albuquerque that young Johnny finally realized his dream by stopping Martinez by TKO11. He became a very popular champion in his home state and became known for his colorful and brash ring persona. In his third defense, he defeated Arthur Johnson, by MD. Johnson also challenged Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson for his IBF flyweight title. After making ten defenses, he had a unification title fight against the hard hitting Danny Romero Jr, who was his local rival and held the IBF belt. The fight was therefore a great event, but was held at Thomas and Mack Center in Vegas, on 18 July 1997. After 12 rounds, Tapia was proclaimed the winner by scores of 115-113 and 116-112 twice. He was now a unified champion and would make two defenses as such, before vacating both titles to move up to bantamweight. 
 

After winning one fight there on points, he was given a crack at the WBA title held by the excellent Nana Yaw Konadu of Ghana. They fought on 5 December 1998 at Convention Center in Atlantic City and Tapia dominated the fight against the 35-yearold champion and was ruled down in the eleventh round, but the scores were closer than the fight had been. Still, two judges had Tapia ahead and one had it even, which meant Tapia was now a three-time, two-weight champion. In 1999, he first scored a KO1 in a non-title fight against clubfighter Alberto Martinez, before making his first defense against the tricky Paulie Ayala, 26 June at Mandalay Bay. In what became the FIGHT OF THE YEAR, Ayala shocked the world by handing the 46-0-2 Tapia his first loss in a close fight, by the scores or 116-113, 115-114 and 116-113 again. 
 

He rebounded by beating Jorge Eliecer Julio to win the WBO title by a wide decision on 8 January 2000, at home in Albuquerque. He made one defense of it by UD against Pedro Javier Torres, before signing for a rematch with Ayala. However, it was made at a catchweight of 124 pounds, because Tapia could not make the 118 limit anymore and had to vacate the WBO belt. That fight happened 7 October ‘00 at MGM Grand and, despite looking like the winner in most people’s eyes, Tapia found himself robbed in a very controversial decision which again went to Ayala. Both he and his cornermen were furious and a melee erupted in the ring, forcing the security guards to escort Tapia out by force. After this upsetting incident, Mi Vida Loca came back in March next year as a featherweight and stopped the solid Mexican Cuahtemoc Gomez by RTD6. He also stopped the former WBC champion Cesar Soto by KO3, showing his power had improved at the new weight. 
 

In 2002, he first stopped Eduardo Enrique Alvarez by TKO1, fighting in London for the first time, at York Hall in Bethnal Green, 19 January. On 27 April, he would capture his last world title when be beat Manuel Medina (another five-time champion) by a close majority decision at Madison Square Garden. He then vacated that belt in order to fight the greatest boxer he ever would face-the lineal and The Ring champion Marco Antonio Barrera. That fight happened on 2 November at MGM Grand and Barrera, younger by 7 years, turned out to be too much for Johnny and won by a clear unanimous decision, 116-112 and 118-110 twice. That would also be Tapia’s last pivotal or relevant fight. In 2004, he experienced an upset loss against Frankie Archuleta by SD10, but avenged it in 2005, winning by UD10. In September that year however, he got knocked out for the first and only time in 2 rounds by 23-13-2 Sandro Marcos, after getting hit with a big left hook to the body.

On 17 January 2007, he held a press conference where he announced he intended to fight once more against Evaristo Primero, on 23 February. It happened and Tapia won by majority decision. However, on 12 March, only 17 days later, he was found unconscious in his hotel room-he had overdosed on cocaine. To make matters even worse, the very next day, his brother in law and nephew were killed in a car accident en route to visit him in the hospital. He eventually recovered and decided to continue boxing and eventually made his ring comeback on 6 March 2010 in Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico, winning by TKO4 against Jorge Alberto Reyes. This bout was fought at super featherweight, while the next on 24 September same year, was for the IBC Americas lightweight title and he once again won by TKO4 against Jose Alonso. His final fight came on 4 June 2011, against former four-weight world champion Mauricio Pastrana of Colombia. Both men were down once before Tapia was proclaimed the winner after 8 rounds, on all cards. It was held in his hometown and was a worthy farewell for this legend.

His final record is 59 wins, with 30 ko’s, 5 losses and 2 draws. Sadly, Johnny Tapia died in the early hours of 27 May 2012, only aged 45. Cardiac arrest was the official cause. He left behind a wife, Teresa, and three children. His autobiography titled “Mi Vida Loca: The Crazy Life of Johnny Tapia” was released in 2006 and HBO aired a documentary about his life and career in 2013, simply called “Tapia”. His autobiography starts with him stating “I was born on Friday the 13th, a Friday in February of 1967. To this day I don’t know if it makes me lucky or unlucky”. I think it was both. For all his tragedies and troubles, Johnny gave the boxing world so many entertaining fights and his colorful and charming persona lightened up the screen. His career may have had its lows but with a record of 17-1-1 in world title fights, 13 defenses as flyweight champion and five world titles in three different divisions-he has accomplished A LOT. In 2017, he was posthumously inducted into the IBHOF. Thus, one can say…he really belongs among the stars. 

 

 

[LondonRingRules]

--- Boz, I saw the latter part of his career when he was in full drugged out crazy mode on the old Telefutura fights that I first started covering for Boxrec and later Fightnews. Telefutura was a sorta exotic terrestrial Southwestern Spanish Language TV station that few Americans received signals for. Oscar used to promote his up and comers on Telefutura when GoldenBoy was still in full pomp.

Johnny was all guns blazing active not to mention being incredibly quick for an aging drug abuser that got the Mexican fans all riled up. 

The shame is I was also watching a train in slo mo heading for the crashsite, and it was terribly painful in that nothing could be done to stop it. He was out of control crazy, but his widow is still received wildly at fight introductions, so a lot of good came from his untimely death.