In a life that was personally tormented and tempestuous and a boxing career punctuated by frequent absences from the ring owing to his addiction to drugs, the American Johnny Tapia nevertheless held versions of the world title at three different weights, super flyweight, bantamweight and featherweight over a period of eight years from 1994 to 2002.
A ferocious, non-stop attacking fighter and a brilliant boxer, whose tattooed torso bore, among many other things, the legend “Mi vida loca” (my crazy life), Tapia cut a daunting ring presence. Among his most notable bouts were contests with his home-town rival Danny Romero, the Texan Paulie Ayala, and the great Mexican Marco Antonio Romero, with whom he fought his last world title bout.
Few people, even in the boxing world where “normal” lives are the exception rather than the rule, can have had a more inauspicious start to existence than Tapia. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1967, but never knew his father who, apparently, had been murdered while his mother, Virginia, was still pregnant with him.
When he was 8 his mother was kidnapped, raped, stabbed more than 20 times and left for dead. Awakened by her screams, Tapia retained memories of her chained to the back of a pickup truck. These were undoubtedly connected with the demons that pursued him throughout his life. She died in hospital four days later without regaining consciousness.
Raised by his grandmother, Tapia was street wise at an early age, running with gangs and involved in petty crime and drugs. But boxing was a salvation of sorts. He had a talent that appeared to be instinctive, and he soon became a star in Albuquerque boxing circles. At 16 he was national Golden Gloves light flyweight champion, and two years later, in 1985, took the national Golden Gloves flyweight title.
Advertisement
Turning professional in 1988, he fought a draw on his first bout in March that year, but thereafter reeled off a string of victories. The promoter Bob Arum took notice of him and by May 1990 he had won the United States Boxing Association super flyweight title which he was to defend four times. He seemed to be on the verge of a world title fight, but he then tested positive for cocaine, lost his licence and was out of the ring for three-and-a-half years.
A wretched period followed, with lapses into addiction, as he struggled in the twilight world of the drug user. Nevertheless, supported by Arum and his organisation, by March 1994 he was back in the ring and in July that year won the North American Boxing Federation super flyweight title, knocking out Oscar Aguilar. A few days later he was arrested for drug dealing. But the case against him collapsed when the contents of the bag he was carrying at the time he was stopped by police were revealed to be soap.
In October 1994 he halted Henry Martinez in 11 rounds to claim the vacant WBO super featherweight title. Over the next three years he defended this numerous times, in the process stacking up a spirit of rivalry with home-town boy, “Kid Dynamite” Romero, who had become the IBF world champion. The pair met in Las Vegas in July 1997 with both titles riding on the bout. Tapia ran out the winner on points after a dozen pulsating rounds. He defended his two titles several times more before relinquishing them to move up to bantamweight, relieving the WBA champion, Nana Konadu of Ghana, of his title on points in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in December 1998. In June 1999 he lost this in a shock defeat on points by Paulie Ayala in Las Vegas. This sent Tapia on another downward spiral. He tried to commit suicide by drug overdose and spent some time in hospital.
Astonishingly he was able to bounce back and by January the following year he had won the WBO bantam title from Jorge Eliecer Julio in Albuquerque. After one more successful defence the inevitable unification match with Ayala was staged in Las Vegas in October 2000, with Tapia again losing against his rival on points and finding himself without titles once more.
This time Tapia did not let the defeat get to him. He went up in weight yet again, campaigning at featherweight and beating several very good opponents before challenging the IBF featherweight champion, Manuel Medina, for his title in New York in April 2002. Victory, a close affair on points with a split decision over the 12 rounds, nevertheless made Tapia a world champion at three different weights.
Advertisement
Tapia was no man to rest on his laurels. In November that year he vacated his title to challenge Marco Antonio Barrera for his Lineal title (a notional world championship title held by the boxer universally acclaimed to be the best in his division by cognoscenti, somewhat in defiance of the multitude of versions of the world title created by the proliferating boxing organisations). Barrera was also The Ring’s world champion.
The Mexican, who had the previous year inflicted defeat for the first time on Britain’s Naseem Hamed, won the bout by unanimous decision over the distance, and Tapia was again a man without a title. This might have been thought the time to hang up his gloves. Tapia was now over 35 and had been campaigning for 15 years. But he continued to battle on, not only against opponents but against drug problems that continued to plague him. In March 2007 he was found unconscious from an apparent cocaine overdose and was again sent to hospital in a critical condition. Astonishingly, he recovered, and actually continued a ring career which ended with four straight victories, the last against Mauricio Pastrana in Albuquerque in June 2011, before he decided to hang up his gloves.
Tapia, who was found dead at his Albuquerque home, is survived by his wife Teresa, who was a constant support to him, and by three children.
Johnny Tapia, boxer, was born on February 13, 1967. He died on May 27, 2012, aged 45