I've seen some say they feel he was a full fledged ATG and one of the best ever at certain weights. But mostly you don't really see him mentioned period, strange enough. What did he have going for him? Did we miss the best Tapia had to offer when he was out of the ring for 4 years or so?
i would say yes we did miss the best .. the drugs and the out of ring time stole a very skilled fighter from us .. he was so damn good even despite all that he still went on to be considered a great ... i mean ali missed the ring 3 years .. and wasn't a dope head or had near the problems he did .. imagin if johnny had that kinda luck? and wasn't so ****ed in the head? ..you coulda had a man that went from his starting wait clear up to 130 winning titles at every stop and just wompin on everybody... as for what he had going for him? .. he was hiiighly skillful for a wild fighter .. he'd go at you .. toe to toe ..step away box your ass off.. throw his hands in the air ..scream with the crowd.. he was like a muuuch more skilled arce in terms of excitement ... put it to you this way ..he took a huuuge opertunity for las vegas to make boat loads of cash for it to go down and took the clout he had and had his scrap with cross town rival danny romero held right in new mexico ... that's what tap had going for him .. yeah yeah yeah it made sense to have it there yeah yeah yeah ..promoters would have much rather of had it in las vegas or LA i'm pretty sure .. more money involved .. more sponsoers.. ect ect .. thats tapia though .. mivida loco himself
I thought he was one of the best fighters in the world in the late '90s, and arguably the best jr. bantam champ ever.
Johnny Tapia is an unbelievably underrated fighter on ESB. This would have been almost understandable if he didn't have a particularly exciting style. Despite his low KO ratio, Tapia was an incredibly exciting fighter, who has to be considered one of the best fighters ever at 115lb. The decision in the first fight with Paulie Ayala worked against him, but even in that fight, he was one half of one of the greatest fights I have personally ever seen. It's a bit puzzling why he isn't at the forefront of the Boxing community. Dramatic career in the ring, out of the ring, and a larger than life personality. Puzzling.
I agree he isnt talked about enough..I am guilty of underrating him and forgetting him, even though I have a decent collection of his fights. Probably one of the best H2H ever at superfly, if not the best..At the very least in the top tier in this regard. I actually entertained the idea not so long ago that Mijares could of beaten him because of reasons I cant really remember..Seems madness now and to tell you the truth Im not so sure why I ever considered it because I was one of the guys who wasnt that impressed with Cristian (thats not to say I wasnt impressed though, just not to the level of some).
Tapia in his prime may have actually been better than his now generally far more highly regarded lighter weight contemporaries Morales and Barrera. He was a well schooled technical boxer with excellent speed, who had more of a brawling\showboating mentality that could either work for or against him depending on the opponent.At times he had that Buchanan-esque way of just walking around the ring disdainfully controlling fighters with the quick one-twos.Kondadu is a great example of it, even though Nana looked like he had taken on one fight too many right from the start. Despite his skills, he wasn't really a great ring general, but more someone who would just fight on natural ability.He really shouldn't have had the trouble with a fairly basic volume puncher like Ayala that he did. A fight with Roman at 115 would be an awesome standup technical fight.
One of my favorite fighters, I can relate a little bit to his "vida loca". Very underrated on ESB, I often mention him for that reason.
It is strange that he dosent get mentioned more on esb.He is one of the best fighters ive seen.I dont think anyone could deny his greatness its just odd he dont get talked about that much.
