Still a Crazy Life for Johnny Tapia

It's Still a Crazy Life for Johnny Tapia
a Q&A with Steve Kim (Mon June 25, 2001) Photo: Tom Hogan

Life just wouldn't be normal for four-time champion Johnny Tapia if things were, well, normal. For him life is a day-to-day struggle, in and out of the ring. As he continues to work for his fifth world title, he is once again going through changes behind the scenes.

When he takes on former World Boxing Council featherweight champion Cesar Soto this Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, he comes in with a 'new' promoter (as he is under the Don King banner once again) and a new face in the corner, former WBC welterweight king Buddy McGirt.

How long will these unions last? Who knows. Afterall, for Tapia it's written right on his trunks — "Mi Vida Loca". Tapia took a few minutes out of his day to talk to MaxBoxing.com's Steve Kim.

MaxBoxing.com: Johnny, let's take a look at your career situation. This Saturday at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, you're going to be taking on Cesar Soto. You know Soto that is a former world champion, but most people are thinking of this as a tune-up fight. What's your attitude coming into this fight?

Johnny Tapia: Basically, I have to get everything right. I've got to fight a very smart fight. I'm fighting a guy with 39 knockouts. He can knock you out with both hands. I really got to watch out every round.

MB: Johnny, when you look at your career, there's always a certain amount of turmoil and transition. Let's talk about one of these transitions — Don King. You've bounced around a lot. I think you set some sort of record by signing with America Presents twice, yet never fighting for them, now you're back with King. Why?

JT: They were offering me bigger and better things on the table, America Presents. They breached the contract, things like not getting a fight when and where we were supposed to. I've tried the rest, now I'm back with the best. So what can I do, except go for bigger and better paydays and set up myself for my life and have fun doing it?

MB: Your manager is your wife, Teresa. She said that the last time you pulled out with Don King that it wasn't any money problems or any issues with money being missing, but the fact that he was going through so many different things that he couldn't focus on the career of Johnny Tapia.

Now, you know he's in court with the heavyweight situation and he's got the middleweight tournament with Felix Trinidad, can you be sure King can give Johnny Tapia the proper type of attention this time around?

JT: Y'know what? To tell you the truth, attention or no attention, I'm getting paid good and that's why I'm in the business — to get paid and set my family up for the rest of their lives and he pays me well. So I'm going to do the best and I'm represented by Showtime, so I'm OK.

MB: Another one of the transitions that you've made is being trained by Buddy McGirt. How's that working out?

JT: Me and Buddy are doing well. Everybody knows that I've been through a lot of trainers in my life, but I only want to get better and the minute they stop teaching me what I don't know, I'm going to move on. Y'know, it's been a blessing, I've been fighting for 22 years, I have 54 professional fights, I've done good. I had a long winning streak, so I must have been doing something right to stay around this long.

MB: You've been with big-name trainers like Jessie Reid and Freddie Roach, what does Buddy McGirt bring to the table?

JT: Boxing skills. Like not getting hit no more. I'm pretty stubborn about that too. Everybody knows that when I get hit that I get crazy. I really, really want to put on a great performance, I want people to talk about it and say, 'They say he's getting old, but he looks just as young as he did when he first started'. That's what I want them to say.

MB: Do you look at Paulie Ayala as a dark moment in your career? The second fight, most of the people who were there who were unbiased, felt as though you clearly won that fight. Ayala will be fighting at 122 pounds against Bones Adams soon, is there any chance you'd fight him for a third time?

JT: I don't have anything to prove, y'know? Paulie Ayala's fighting on ESPN and I'm on Showtime, that tells you something.

MB: Ayala also fights for Bob Arum, as do many of the champions from 118 to 126 pounds, right in the heartland of where you're at. Will you ever fight against another Bob Arum fighter?

JT: Well, whoever fights against Paulie Ayala, Mike Tyson could fight him, Roy Jones could fight him, they're still not going to win. And it's not the fighter they lose to, it's the promoter and that's what happened to me.

MB: Johnny, you're coming to the twilight of your boxing career, have you thought about how you want to end your career and what you're going to do after it ends?

JT: To tell you the truth, if I get a good ass-beating, or if I did something stupid, I have a very good, special friend of mine, who's also an agent of mine, named Bob Case, who will tell me when it's over. I tell me wife and my brother Robert, I tell them, 'If you ever see me doing something stupid and you never saw me do that before, please tell me to quit.'

Because it's going to be hard if I don't satisfy myself. I want to be one of the few fighters EVER to have something after I'm done. A lot of them are coming back today but see, I've got a special wife (Teresa). She loves me for who I am, not what I am. She's been with me through thick and thin, with all the drugs and problems. Everything you can do wrong to a woman, I've done to her and she's still there for me. So I've got to give everything to her, and give all my appreciation to my wife.

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