Columnist Dean Juipe: Tapia to fight another 'bad dude'

Dean Juipe's boxing notebook appears Thursday. His sports column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

Johnny Tapia picked up the phone at his Ruidoso, N.M., home and training base and indicated he had plenty of time to talk.

"Oh man, I'm bored," he said. "I've done everything there is to do. I'm just counting the hours to the fight."

Tapia, a former junior bantamweight and bantamweight world champion, will attempt to regain that status Saturday in Albuquerque when he faces World Boxing Organization 118-pound champ Jorge Eliecer Julio in a bout to be televised by the Showtime cable network.

In no way is this an easy fight for Tapia, who is 46-1-2 with 25 knockouts but is coming off his lone professional loss. Beaten by Paulie Ayala June 26 in Las Vegas, Tapia initially announced his retirement but later reconsidered and now has an opponent who is perhaps every bit as formidable as Ayala staring him in the face.

Julio is 42-1 with 31 knockouts and has won 16 straight since losing to Junior Jones in 1993.

"I never liked the idea of a tuneup fight," Tapia said of bypassing the usual array of journeymen and seeking out a fighter of Julio's quality and distinction. "I like to fight the best and fighting a lesser guy wouldn't do me any good.

"Besides, history is loaded with fighters who lost supposed 'tuneup' fights."

Tapia is a slight betting favorite in Las Vegas for a bout that will either reinstate him as a worthy champion or saddle him with a loss that would negatively impact his career. Either way, credit him with fighting a tough guy at a time when he could have sought out a much easier opponent.

"Julio's definitely no pushover," Tapia said. "He's a bad dude and he's not just going to give me his title. He's been a great champion and I've got to get his respect early and take him out of his fight plan."

It turns out Julio has wanted a fight with Tapia as badly as Tapia wants this one with Julio.

"He's called me out a few times before," Tapia said. "This time, I took him up on it."

Julio, 30, is a native of Colombia who has been fighting regularly in the United States since 1996. Among his most recent victims were respectable opponents like Famosito Gomez, Oscar Maldonado, Daniel Jimenez and Julio Gamboa.

While he is prone to cuts, Julio compensates with an aggressive style that accentuates his power. Although he's not a slugger per se, he is a willing competitor who always seems more than happy to mix it up.

"He's a hard hitter who can knock you out with one punch," Tapia said. "I'm anxious to get in the ring with him and see what he's got."

In the intervening months since facing Ayala, Tapia has been on a mission of sorts. Aside from the natural soul searching that follows a loss, he was able to come to grips with an obsession that had haunted him in recent years.

"They found the killers in my mom's death," he said, referring to an incident that occurred when he was only eight years old. "That had bothered me for a long, long time. It led to a lot of drama."

But in the midst of this reflective period, Tapia ate. And ate.

"I got up to 150 pounds," he said. "I was just sitting around, being depressed. Finally I realized I can't be depressed forever and that I had to fight again."

He has whittled his weight down to the 118 limit while admitting it's something he may not do again.

"Making 118 is hard for me," he said. "It's time for me to move up. If I don't, I'm running the risk of hurting myself outside the ring."

Approaching 33 years old, Tapia has used a crowd-pleasing style to build a splendid career. Despite a prison terms for drugs and despite a lack of serious power, he has faithfully fought all the top fighters and made it past all but one.

Included on his list of conquests are victories over Henry Martinez, Hugo Soto, Danny Romero and Nana Konadu.

"I'm known as one of the great champions but I still feel I have a lot to prove to myself," Tapia said. "I've been in the ball game a long time, and now I've found the peace in my life that had been missing.

"I'm hungry, I'm mean and I'm driven. How many champions come back to win another championship? The answer is not many, and I want to be one of them."

When he steps into the ring Saturday it will have to feel different, as Tapia will be in the unaccustomed role of challenger. With what may be 18,000 spectators in the stands, he'll enter the ring first.

"I haven't done that in a long time," he said. "I don't like being called the challenger and I won't like coming in first."

While he expects the crowd to be eager for action, Tapia wants to hold back on the throttle for a few minutes.

"I appreciate the crowd but they're not the ones who have to go to the hospital with bruises, black eyes and bleeding," he said. "I can assure them I'll win this fight, but I want to win it my way and calm the pace down like I did with Romero.

"But if everything flies out the door, we'll meet in the middle of the ring and get it on."

* QUICK HITS: Two other fights of some note are on the Tapia vs. Julio undercard, as perennial heavyweight contender Frans Botha (39-2-1) takes on Steve Pannell (33-6) and featherweight Danny Romero (36-3-1) goes up against Rodolfo Blanco (28-14-1). "I don't know him at all," Botha said of Pannell during a conference call this week. "I'm not going to take him for granted. I'm going to fight like I am fighting for the heavyweight championship." Botha has been training in Los Angeles with a new handler, Abel Sanchez. ... Romero will use his fight with Blanco to tune up for a just-announced title fight with WBA super bantamweight champ Nestor Garza. They'll meet on the March 4 card at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in which Paulie Ayala will headline against an opponent yet to be determined.

Negotiations for the stalled Felix Trinidad vs. David Reid match have resumed and promoter Dan Goossen implies that a formal announcement of the fight is imminent. "The fight should happen in the first quarter of the year," he said, adding that he has "settled his differences" with HBO and withdrawn a lawsuit he filed against the cable network. Trinidad vs. Reid was on for March 4 in Las Vegas until being scrapped; look for the fight to land here at a slightly later date. ... Another major fight, Lennox Lewis vs. Michael Grant, is all but signed for April 29 in New York's Madison Square Garden. Lewis, the undisputed heavyweight champion who is 35-1-1, will be paid $10 million, while Grant, 31-0, will get $3 million. "We're in the process of finalizing the contracts," said Milton Chwasky, an attorney for Lewis.

Shane Mosley, who fights Willie Wise Jan. 22 at the Hard Rock, said "I'm planning on using this fight to send a message to Oscar (De La Hoya) and the rest of the welterweights." Mosley, 33-0, has moved up two weight divisions and could parlay a win over Wise into a June 17 fight with De La Hoya. "I'm excited about fighting Oscar but I'm not looking past Wise," Mosley said. "Wise is a slick, intelligent boxer and I'm ready for a tough fight." ... De La Hoya, speaking on Geraldo Rivera's show Monday, said "My goal is to be the first athlete in the Forbes 400." ... The IBF apparently has stripped Terron Millett of his junior welterweight title (due to inactivity brought on by injury) and has designated a Feb. 12 fight in Connecticut between Zab Judah and former Las Vegan Jan Bergman as being for the vacant title. Zudah (21-0) and Bergman (38-2) are the IBF's top-rated challengers at 140 pounds.

While James Crayton said he wanted to return to 135 pounds after fighting some at 140, the chance to fight junior welterweight Antonio Diaz on national television altered his view. Crayton, who is a deceiving 31-11-2, took the fight this week and it will be held Feb. 4 at a site still to be determined. The Las Vegan had been hoping for a fight with Angel Manfredy or Isreal Cordona, although Diaz could be just as tough. ... Junior lightweight Ernesto Zepeda of Mexico headlines the next card at The Orleans, Jan. 14, with his opponent yet to be determined.

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