Johnny Tapia

Johnny Tapia
Data
Birth Name	John Lee Tapia
Fight name	Mi Vida Loca
Weight class	Super flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight
nationality	United States
birthday	February 13, 1967
place of birth	Albuquerque
Date of death	May 27, 2012
Place of death	Albuquerque
style	Left delivery
size	1.68 m
Range	1.65 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	66
Victories	59
Knockout victories	30th
Defeats	5
draw	2
Profile in the BoxRec database

John Lee "Johnny" Tapia (born February 13, 1967 in Albuquerque , New Mexico ; † May 27, 2012 ibid) was an American boxer . He was WBO and IBF world champion in super flyweight, WBA and WBO world champion in bantamweight, and IBF world champion in featherweight. His battle name Mi Vida Loca comes from Spanish and means "My crazy life."

In 2017 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Life

youth

Johnny Tapia had a difficult childhood. He never met his father because he was shot before he was born. At the age of eight he witnessed his mother's kidnapping. She was badly mistreated, raped and critically injured before she died in hospital four days later. He then grew up with his grandparents.

Amateur career

Johnny Tapia started boxing at the age of nine and has played 122 amateur fights, of which he won 101 (65 of which by knockout) and lost 21. He won the National Golden Gloves in the light flyweight in 1983 and the National Golden Gloves in the flyweight in 1985.

Professional career

Tapia completed his first professional fight on March 28, 1988 and remained undefeated in his first 48 fights. In his 18th fight on May 10, 1990 he won by technical knockout in the eleventh round over Roland Gomez the US championship in super flyweight and defended it four times in a row, including against the European champion Luigi Camputaro . On July 15, 1994 he won by technical knockout in the third round over Oscar Aguilar, the North American championship of the NABF .

On October 12, 1994, he won in a spectacular fight by technical knockout in the eleventh round over Henry Martínez the WBO world title. However, the WBO was not yet one of the major associations at that time. He defended this ten times in a row and also won the IBF world title on July 18, 1997 by unanimously winning points over Danny Romero . He was able to defend both titles against Andy Agosto and Rodolfo Blanco , before giving up both titles to move up to bantamweight.

There he defeated the reigning WBA world champion Nana Konadu on December 5, 1998 by winning points and was thus the new WBA world champion in this weight class. But already in his first title defense on June 26, 1999, he lost the title by losing points to Paulie Ayala . The spectacular fight, in which the blatant outsider Ayala brought the undefeated defending champion into distress several times, was later voted "fight of the year" by Ring Magazine . But already in the next fight on January 8, 2000 he defeated the WBO world champion Jorge Eliécer Julio by unanimous victory on points, making him the new WBO world champion. He defended this title against Pedro Torres and finally met Paulie Ayala again on October 7, 2000, the only man who could defeat him so far. But Tapia also lost this non-title fight controversially on points, which led to tumult inside and outside the ring. The fight was again of high intensity, Tapia avoided many blows from Ayala with skillful movements, let blow attacks run into the void and was able to land effective combinations on his part. On lap six, Ayala was hit in the temple by a left hook and stumbled into the ring ropes, but did not go down. For the last ten seconds of the fight, the two boxers exchanged blows that lasted up to the round gong. After the fight, the angry Tapia had to be escorted out of the ring by security guards, Tapia's brother-in-law attacked a family member of Ayala's promoter Bob Arum and was arrested.

Then Tapia moved to featherweight, where he won the IBF world title on April 27, 2002 when he unanimously defeated the multiple world champion Manuel Medina on points. However, Medina had executed 1466 strokes in the fight and thus set a new record in featherweight. On September 30, 2002 Tapia the world title was withdrawn, however, because he denied an unauthorized by the IBF fight against Marco Antonio Barrera , which he also lost on points. In the following years he was only active sporadically. On September 24, 2010, he won the IBC lightweight “world championship title”, which is of little international importance, with a technical knockout in the fourth round over José Alonso.

From October 1990 to March 1994 he was banned from the boxing association for drug abuse, and convictions for drug abuse and violation of probation conditions followed in 2009 and 2010. Tapia was found dead on May 27, 2012.

literature

• Mi Vida Loca: The Crazy Life of Johnny Tapia by Bettina Gilois

Web links

• Johnny Tapia in the BoxRec database
• Biography at Boxingnews.com
• Biography at Doghouseboxing.com

swell

1. ^ Message of death on tmz.com
2. ↑ Joshua's compatriot owned the belts of WBA, IBF and WBC, at that time the WBO was not yet part of the illustrious circle. She has only been there since 2007. Since then, the undisputed champion has had four titles.
3. ↑ Five-time world boxing champ Johnny Tapia is found dead in his home aged 45 Daily Mail, from May 28, 2012

predecessor	Office	successor
Johnny Bredahl	World super flyweight boxing champion ( WBO ) October 12, 1994–5. December 1998	Víctor Godoi
Danny Romero	Super flyweight boxing champion ( IBF ) July 8, 1997–5. December 1998	Mark Johnson
Nana Konadu	Bantamweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) December 5, 1998-26. June 1999	Paulie Ayala
Jorge Eliécer Julio	World bantamweight boxing champion ( WBO ) January 8, 2000 – September 2000	Mauricio Martínez
Manuel Medina	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) April 27, 2002 – November 2002	Juan Manuel Marquez