Simply awful—from Tapia to bottom
Johnny Tapia pulls out last minute on “comeback” card; El Paso fight scene KO’d by fistic fiasco

Ringside report by Chris Cozzone and Ricardo Trujillo
Photos by Chris Cozzone

Not too many fight cards have a press conference as their main event.

But that’s what happened last night at the El Paso County Coliseum when former five-time world champion Johnny Tapia pulled out of his comeback headliner on a card thrown, at least on paper, by Browning Boxing.

It was supposed to be the first of several fights for Tapia and former El Paso promoter Ron Weathers, who was borrowing the Texas license held by Browning Boxing. The plan was for Tapia to finish off his career with a sixth and final world title fight, against one of the champions at 122.

After last night’s failed attempt, and looming legal battles between Team Tapia and Weathers, a near-future comeback for Tapia is about as likely as another Weathers-promoted card in El Paso.

The falling out of the main event, and the fallout that will follow, were, and are, just two of the endless debacles featured on last night’s show.

For the border town that has not seen boxing action in nearly a year now, last night’s one-ring circus might dissuade another attempt at fisticuffs for another ten years.

From main to no-main event

One of the main reasons given by Tapia to launch a series of comebacks is, he didn’t like the way his “final fight” in 2007 had played out. That fight had been against a last-minute opponent, and he’d blamed the promoter.

This card, however, made last year’s last-minute problems and main event—which, actually, had turned into a crowd-pleasing match that had Tapia struggling to win by majority decision—minor inconveniences.

Less than a week before fight night, it was announced that Tapia’s opponent had gone from Jose Alonso, a shopworn veteran with a bit of fight in him, to Pedro Rincon, 32-13-2 (15 KOs), of Colombia, who’d dropped six straight bouts.

The problems started at the weigh-in. First, the Texas Athletic Commission arrived an hour late, prompting some of the athletes to stage their own weigh-in, in order to meet the needs of television media on deadline, as well as avoid further dehydration by waiting around for tardy Texan officials.

Tapia was 128 and Rincon, 127.5, both within contractual weight. Only problem was, the weights were not official and, after arriving, the commission members told them to weigh in again. This time around, Tapia was 132 while Rincon, who’d gone off somewhere to eat, could not be located until 10 p.m. that night—he, too, was 132.

Thinking controversy was at its end, most considered the fight still on—until the afternoon of the card.

The fight was off, the fight was on, the fight was off, media was told, re-told, and given excuses that ranged from contractual disputes to a back injury caused by an acupuncturist who’d jabbed Tapia’s sciatic nerve that morning. A press conference would be given during the  evening, in between one of the very few fights left on the card, when Tapia’s legal team arrived.

Meanwhile, Dickie Cole of the Texas Athletic Commission filled us in.

“This is between the fighter and the financial backer,” said Cole. “They could not verbally agree and the contract was not valid.”

The contract between Tapia and Rincon, explained Cole, had the former champ fighting for $1—which usually means an under-the-table arrangement or a verbal agreement between fighter and promoter. Another problem was that the contract had not been signed by, neither, the “paper” promoter on record, Browning Boxing of Texas, nor Ron Weathers, who was staging the card using Browning’s license; the signature of the matchmaker, Reggie McGowan of Tyler, Texas, was on the agreement.

Because of the contractual setup, said Cole, Tapia could not be held accountable for pulling out of the fight, as far as the commission was concerned.

“We’re not involved here,” said Cole.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m disappointed—this is another black eye for boxing. This really hurts El Paso.”

Tapia’s opponent, Rincon, who’d hoped to net $4,500 in what would, no doubt, be his seventh straight loss, was not happy, for, he, too, had just been informed of the fiasco.

“I really wanted to fight him real bad,” said Rincon, who’d signed a contract to fight Tapia for $4,500. “This promotion has been very disorganized from the beginning.”

Hoping to salvage the main event, San Antonio’s Benjamin Flores was flown into town during the afternoon to sub for Tapia and fight Rincon, never mind that last November, he TKO’d him in four.

“They tell me that I will only get paid if I fight Flores,” said Rincon, who’d just been informed of Flores, at 7:30 p.m., a half-hour from first bell.

“If I don’t fight Flores, I only get $150—not even enough to pay for what I already spent on food.”

But, just minutes before the first bout was staged—already 45 minutes late—the bout was crossed off the slate when it was discovered that Flores did not hold a current license in the state of Texas.

The card was, again, down to three fights and a pointless exhibition.

A press conference was held between the first and second fights to, hopefully, clarify matters with the press.

Instead, things were further complicated.

Tapia’s legal team, Antonio “Mo” Maestas and Thomas Pharr went head-to-head with “promoter” Ron Weathers in a verbal battle that had more action than most of the physical fights in the ring.

“Bottom line is, Johnny Tapia is not fighting because there is no contract,” said Maestas.

“This is between Johnny and the promoter, and the two parties are not in agreement. Johnny is healthy and strong, and has a bright future, and he apologizes to his fans.”

“We do have a contract,” Weathers disputed the disputable contract.

“The contract is 70/30—70 percent of the net for Tapia, plus I’d given him two advances already, one for $13,000 and another for $12,000, from sponsorship. I thought everything was fine until I get a call this morning from Teresa Tapia.

“’I want $60,000,’ she tells me, and that’s out of the question. This is bullshit.”

Maestas challenged the question of a valid contract again, but was cut off by a stormy Weathers.

“You can kiss my ass. There is a contract.”

Maestas explained that Team Tapia had tried for a week to get a written contract but had been unable to get one—at least, a valid one—from Weathers.

“The fans are rightfully upset, but no one is more upset than Johnny Tapia,” said Maestas. “He is the last person to blame for this.”

Tapia’s other attorney tried to explain that no one was to blame, that it was just a failed business transaction.

Weathers blamed Tapia and the commission, pointing out again that the Tapias had demanded $60,000 from him that morning, then had switched gears in their story by telling him that Tapia’s lower back had been injured by an overzealous acupuncturist. He was also told, he said, that the advances would be repaid to Weathers.

“A deal was a deal,” said Weathers. “I’m out $60,000 for this fight.”

Undercard

Opponents ranged from a 43-year-old retiree to a human punching bag who’d lost ten out of his last dozen. One fight was labeled an exhibition because of a ten-pound weight difference at the weigh-in and the only originally-scheduled fight was a sleeper that was, mercifully, downgraded from an eight-rounder to a sixer.

Add to that, terrible lighting, a ring announcer who took more time introducing the fighters than the fighters took fighting, countless breaks and delays, and you had an undercard that was overbearingly underachieving.

They couldn’t even get the national anthem right. There was no one to sing it and the ring announcer looked around, confused, after calling for the anthem to begin, though there was no one in the ring to do so.

And then the three-bout card began.

Fans not happy, but Happy was  

In the opening bout, 300-pound Alfred “Li’l Bum” Happy, of Lovelock, Nev., took out 214-pound late sub local Joe Sullivan, in less than three rounds.

Despite the 86-pound difference, short notice, age disparity and coming off a seven-year retirement, Sullivan was game against the awkward, lumbering Happy.

Sullivan was dropped at 2:50 with a crisp left hook of the first. In the second, Happy proved hittable by a craftier Sullivan but in the third, a right cross dropped the aged veteran to the canvas and the fight was stopped by the referee at 1:53.

With the win, Happy goes to 5-0, 4 KOs, while Sullivan tips his .500 record to the losing side, at 3-4, 3 KOs.

Trout clouts Verdin in mismatch

Originally, Las Cruces jr. middleweight, former Olympic alternate Austin Trout was scheduled to fight a mismatch tune-up against 8-21 Mikel Williams. When Williams did not show up for the weigh-in, late sub from Louisiana, human punching bag Steve Verdin, stepped in, keeping the fight as is, one awful mismatch.

Trout, fresh from Las Vegas where he was brought in to help Sugar Shane Mosley prepare for his May 31 showdown with Zab Judah, punished Verdin, and the crowd, through one-plus rounds.

At 2:26 of the second it was over, Verdin on the canvas on shot legs, downed by a straight left hand.

Verdin loses his sixth straight bout, falling to 8-39-2 (1 KO) thanks to the many commissions around the country who continue to approve his brain-battering bouts, while Trout gets a meaningless win, rising his stats to 14-0, 11 KOs.

Han debuts in mismatched exhibition

What was supposed to be a pro debut for Jennifer Han—celebrated amateur superstar—was reduced to a ridiculous exhibition against the same opponent she was originally scheduled to fight.

At the weigh-in, opponent Kalisha Harris weighed in at 114—ten pounds lighter than Han—prompting the Texas athletic commission to nix the fight for its potential danger.

Instead, an exhibition was arranged, which still had Han slaughtering the lamb set before her.

Harris was dropped twice before the referee stopped the so-called “exhibition.”

Page-turner, not

In the final bout of the night, in what was supposed to be an eight-round co-main but was downgraded to a six-rounder, after an incredulous hour-long break, Dallas’ Lovy Page won a lackluster, sleep-inducing majority decision over Aaron Lyons, of Gulfport, Miss.

Scores were 59-55 twice and 57-57.

Page rises to 16-8, 12 KOs while Lyons drops to 8-3, 6 KOs.

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