Sharkie’s Week in Boxing: The Glamour of Boxing - Featuring Johnny Tapia

Manuel “Mantecas” Medina Vs. Johnny “Mi Vida Loca” Tapia

(60-11-0-27 KO’s) (51-2-2-28 KO’s)

28.04 - By Frank Gonzalez: Boxing is a glamorous sport. It is excitement, passion and suspense built up on speculation and intense anticipation. There’s the ring, the one on one battle, the referee and the Judges who score the action, as the combatants take their places on the big stage in their quest for victory, fame and fortune. Sometimes fights are won by knockout, leaving no question as to who won, in spite of what may have happened in the rounds preceding the knockout. Other times, it becomes a matter of who did the most damage or was the most effective of the fighters. Judges should be impartial and score each round based on four things; clean punches, effective aggressiveness, ring generalship and defense. Knockouts are definitive and beyond the influence of the Judges.

With the unscrupulous politics of Boxing, many ‘outside of the ring’ circumstances play a role in deciding victories inside the ring. It’s not just about the fighters, no Sir. It is about the Promoters, the Judges, the Sanctioning bodies, the big Network contracts, the popularity points and most of all, money. Unless there is a knockout, the Fighters alone do not decide the outcome of the fights, no Sir.

Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, in New York City, IBF Featherweight Champion Manuel Medina took on the very popular Johnny Tapia for the 126-pound title. This would be Johnny Tapia’s debut performance in NYC. “Mi Vida Loca,” as Tapia is affectionately known, is a big Star in the sport of Boxing. His only two losses, both controversial decisions, were against Paulie Ayala, whom some consider a favorite with Judges.

Tapia’s personal life has been a roller coaster of highs and lows. After his famous ‘decision’ losses to Ayala, he was suicidal and hospitalized. Tapia’s privacy has been very public. Many fans identify with his struggles in life and he has a large fan base. He is a major attraction at the box office. His fights sell.

Manuel Medina is from Tijuana Mexico. As a Featherweight, he has been overshadowed by the likes of Erik Morales and Marcos Antonio Barrera, the big stars of the division, neither of whom he’s ever faced. At 31-years old he has fought 71 professional fights in his career, which began at the age of 15. He recently won the IBF title with a TKO win over Frank Toledo last November. The last time he lost a fight was to Paul Ingle (then 21-1), back in November of 1999, losing by a unanimous decision.

I’ve seen a few of Medina’s fights and find him to be a high volume puncher, constantly busy, who lacks power but frustrates opponents by out-boxing them, while scoring with tagging punches. In light of what happened last week to his stable-mate, Jose Luis Castillo, who lost by controversial decision to the popular Star, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Medina expressed concerns prior to the fight about Tapia’s star power influencing the Judges, should the fight go the distance.

HBO’s Jim Lampley and Emanuel Stewart discussed last weeks Castillo Mayweather fight and how the week leading to this fight was marred with controversy about the scoring of fights that involve high profile fighters. Would it happen again?

The Fight

In the first round, Tapia seemed the stronger, landing the heavier punches. Medina showed excellent Boxing skills, and used his jab and combinations effectively. Both did well with Medina landing more but Tapia landing harder. I scored the round- Even.

In the second round, Medina was more effective, landing more, out hustling Tapia. I score it for Medina. In the third, Medina took Tapia to school with superior Boxing skills, speed and a high work rate of offense. Frustrated, Tapia hits after the bell. Medina wins round.

Before the fourth round began, HBO showed Harold Lederman’s scorecard; he had Medina winning 3-0 at that point. In the fourth, Tapia struggled, trying to find his rhythm in a fight where he was being out maneuvered at every turn. Medina’s offense is his defense.

Medina peppered Tapia with his fly swatter jabs and combinations and mostly evaded Tapia’s heavier punches. Tapia had a decent fifth round, catching Medina with left hooks and a few body shots. Since Medina also did well, I scored that round Even.

Fighting Medina is like being caught in a phone booth with a hundred ‘pissed off’ Mosquitoes stinging you all over. By the seventh round, Lederman’s scorecard read 6-0 in favor of Medina. Rounds seven and eight were more of Medina getting the better of Tapia, who was breathing heavily in his corner between rounds. Medina’s stamina was never an issue as he threw upwards of 90-130 punches per round. He looked remarkably calm in his corner between rounds.

At the start of the ninth round, Tapia seemed to find new energy and made it his business to get close to the taller Medina and work the body. Tapia tripped midway through the round, and with their legs locked, he brought Medina down with him. Although Medina never slowed down or showed signs of fatigue, he was over powered by the suddenly more aggressive Tapia, in both the ninth and tenth rounds.

There was a head butt in the 11th round and Medina was warned for backhand punching. Aware of Tapia’s need for a knockout, Medina stayed on the outside and worked the jab effectively. Medina’s ring generalship and use of the jab kept Tapia off balance through most of the fight.

Both fighters embraced in a show of respect to start the 12th and final round. Knowing he needed a knockout to win, Tapia proceeded to give everything he had left to try to win. Medina knew he only had to keep out of harms way and did so while still throwing about 95 punches and still scoring. I called that round Even. After the final bell rang, both fighters embraced and then raised their arms in victory.

The Official Ringside Judges scored as follows:

George Colon: (115-113 Tapia)
Tony Paolillo: (115-113 Tapia)
Melvina Lathan: (114-114 Even)

HBO’s Harold Lederman scored it 117-111 for Medina.

I scored it 118-113 for Medina.

The fight statistics were as follows:

Punch Stats

Tapia ---- Medina

193 Landed 273
722 Thrown 1466
27% Percent 19%

Jabs

Tapia ---- Medina

40 Landed 128
313 Thrown 1005
13% Percent 13%

As soon as the decision was announced, Manuel Medina exited the ring in disgust, making himself unavailable for the post fight interviews. What useless comments could he make about losing a fight he clearly won. My heart goes out to Manuel Medina, who lost his title to the favorite because of the politics of corruption, which took no account of his domination of Tapia in the ring.

For a second week in a row, an HBO covered fight was decided in questionable fashion, rendering the winner the loser and the loser the winner. You have to wonder who the Judges are accountable to when their decisions are so far from believable. Well, any Promoter will tell you, there’s always big money in rematches of controversial decisions. But I suspect HBO has big plans for a Tapia vs. Hamed showdown in the future. Giving Tapia a belt makes the pot sweeter for the Prince, who disappeared from the public eye after being dismantled by Marcos Antonio Barrera in April of 2001.

During the post fight interview, Larry Merchant spoke with the newly ‘selected’ IBF Featherweight Champion, Johnny Tapia.

LM: Jesse Reid, your trainer was urging you at the end, telling you that you had to win rounds, that you had to take it to him. Did you think you were winning the fight?

JT: The fight was close; uh…first I want to give thanks to God for guiding me and protecting me. Larry, you know, I’m glad to be back on HBO. He’s skillful, got a lot of experience, as a good boxer, he was hard to catch. So I ended up trying to cut the ring off and catch him. It was very close.

LM: You were the ‘star’ of this fight, (Tapia lowers his head in what appeared to be humility) just as Floyd Mayweather was last week against Castillo. Do you think that benefited you in the scoring?

JT: You know Larry, I’m not going to say anything bad about anybody, that’s not the kind of person I am, I have all the respect in the world for a great World Champion…uh…I left it in the hands of the Judges. They told me to push it, I almost knocked him out, dropped him a couple of times, but he’s just a tough cookie.

LM: There has been talk of you fighting Prince Hamed. Is that the next fight you want?

JT: Yes Larry, that’s the business end of it. I love the sport of Boxing, I am a fighter, I am a warrior, I couldn’t use my Boxing skills good, he had a lot of height, I couldn’t catch him even if I wanted to. I’m just glad nobody got in trouble.

LM: Was he much like fighting Paulie Ayala, a guy who just hustled and threw punches all night long, and were you afraid that because of that, that he would get the decision?

JT: Well, not really, cause I’m fighting a righty, not a lefty.

But if you understand Larry, Paulie threw a lot of punches. I couldn’t really catch him where I wanted to. He was skillful… I left it in the hands of the Judges Larry.

LM: Thank you very much. Your first appearance in New York.

I like Tapia; he’s an exciting fighter who always brings truckloads of passion to his fights. Tapia wasn’t exactly self-endorsing during the post fight interview. It seemed like he was going against his conscious in accepting a win he knew he didn’t deserve. He lost this fight in the ring, but won it with the Judge’s Official scorecards, very much like last weeks Mayweather victory decision over the winner, Jose Luis Castillo. At least you could make an argument for the Mayweather win, since he dominated Castillo in the first three rounds of that fight.

Breaking a Compubox record for the most punches thrown in a fight at 126 pounds, Manuel Medina took Johnny Tapia to school and easily won more than 70% of the rounds. Medina was the busier, more effective fighter. I can’t imagine that the Judge’s didn’t see that. They apparently knew how they would score the fight before it started.

That makes it two Mexican winners, losing two fights in two weeks at the hands of Judges in the US of A. Boxing is an international sport that is unfortunately administered locally and often times in a biased manner. Foreign fighters watching this fight must have legitimate fears about crooked decisions when fighting on American soil. Like Floyd, Johnny is a Star. The Judges knew that, and their scorecards reflected it. Who pays the Judges? The Promoters. Why, isn’t that a conflict of interests? Yes, but who do you think runs Boxing, honest people? Face it folks, Medina may be the better boxer, but Tapia is more marketable. Like gangsters in movies say right before killing a trusted friend, “I hope you know, it’s nothing personal, just business.” Business indeed.

During the post fight interview, I thought Johnny Tapia might do something truly heroic, like tell Larry Merchant in no uncertain terms that he felt Medina won the fight and then walk over to Medina’s vacant corner and place the belt in the hands of whoever was left from his corner’s people. I’m sure Tapia’s legendary status would have gained more from that, than to accept a belt he didn’t win in the ring. That’s not the way it ended. Accept it, that’s the glamour of Boxing