HBO Documentary TAPIA – Review

By Lou Eisen

If there is one irrefutable point that the recent raw and emotionally charged HBO documentary TAPIA demonstrated, it is that there is virtually no doubt whatsoever that Teresa Tapia the widow of the late great former five-time world champion Johnny Tapia, is a living saint. She stood by him in the very worst of times (of which there were many) and the precious few good times that the two shared together. Tapia spent most of his angst-filled adult years trying to die so as to be reunited with his beloved mother, who was murdered when Tapia was just eight years old.

Tapia’s life was a Shakespearian tragedy of the highest order. Yet, through all of the chaos that surrounded him, he was still able to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to become a world champion on five separate occasions. To win five world championships is almost an impossible feat for even the most talented of prizefighters to attain, but for Tapia, who was battling a life-long crippling cocaine addiction at the same time his accomplishments become that much more magnified.

Tapia had a secret weapon in his life that always helped him rise to the top in the toughest of situations. That secret weapon was named Teresa Tapia, and she was always there for him, by his side in life and in the ring to help smooth out the rough patches. She eventually became he troubled husband’s manager and she did a very good job of steering his career to the very top of his chosen profession. Johnny loved his wife completely and unconditionally and he loved boxing in the same manner. Without either he would have never made it to 45 years of age.

Teresa Tapia was extremely loyal and devoted to her husband and worked ceaselessly and desperately to help her beloved and tormented husband Johnny battle his inner demons and the narcotics he used to battle them. Teresa was there by his side 24/7. Looking after Johnny was a full-time job. At every one of his recoveries, from a multitude of cocaine overdoses, arrests, suicide attempts, comas, incarcerations and quitting cocaine cold turkey, Teresa was there to hold his hand, guide him and to whisper softly into his ear, that she and their three boys loved him unconditionally.

Teresa also did her very best to keep her emotionally scarred husband sane and focused on his stellar boxing career. She had the toughest job in pro sports and, was as tough emotionally as her husband was fragile.

As the recent HBO documentary on Tapia showed, he was an extremely tortured and tormented person and a profoundly sad soul for most of his life from the age of eight (when his mother was brutally slain) until his death in 2012 at the age of 45 from heart failure. The fact that he was able to function at all on a daily basis, let alone capturing five distinct world championship titles is a story for the ages as well as a true testament to how truly gifted he was in the ring.

When Tapia was six, his mom told him that his father had died in prison. Tapia spent his entire adult life looking for various father figures. It wasn’t until years later, just before his own death that he discovered that his biological father was indeed very much alive.

Tapia violently battled with his cocaine addiction throughout his unhappy life. Unfortunately for Tapia, who grew up and lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the United States drug laws are very antiquated and extremely counter productive and harmful. Drug addiction is a disease of the brain that has physical manifestations.

Rather than trying to get him long-term psychiatric help, the authorities and the justice system were only interested in incarcerating Tapia, which was exactly the wrong way to treat a person who is suffering from the crippling effects of a powerful narcotic drug addiction. Tapia used boxing to try and assuage his inner torments. Needless to say, Tapia had much more success and much better results holding his demons in check at times with boxing than he ever did with cocaine, which only ever seemed to exacerbate the situation.

The first time Tapia was one fight away from a title shot, he flunked two drug tests. He lost his boxing license and was tried, convicted and sentenced to just less than four years in prison. Everyone in pro boxing wrote him off, especially in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, which really stung him to the core. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Tapia back then was his ability to balance a full-time addiction to cocaine while simultaneously demolishing top flight opponents often enough to earn a number one rating in the bantamweight division.

Eventually, something had to give and, his balancing act came to an unceremonious end when he failed two mandatory drug tests before an upcoming world title shot. Both tests showed up positive for cocaine use. Conventional wisdom stated that for all intents and purposes, Tapia was finished as a big time pro boxer. Everyone in the media all over the world plus boxing pundits and former and current fighters all said he was done for good.

The ridicule of Tapia never stopped even after he was released from prison. The general consensus of that time was that no one could come back from an almost 4 year layoff (caused by cocaine addiction) and revive a once promising boxing career again. Well, as often happened throughout his storybook career, the critics and the naysayers were wrong and then some, when it came to the pride and inner resolve of Johnny Lee Tapia. As was quite often the case with Tapia, his critics greatly underestimated the unbeatable intestinal fortitude and iron-willed determination of Mr. Johnny Lee Tapia.

It is still painful to consider that drug addiction cost Tapia almost four prime years off of his Hall of Fame boxing career. In that sense, we may never have really seen how truly great Tapia could have become had he been able to somehow stay out of prison for that extended length of time. Remember, Tapia at the time was only one fight away from a title shot. He ended up doing three years in prison for possession. Unfortunately for Tapia, he battled his entire adult life with cocaine addiction disease and the only people he ever really hurt were himself and his wife and family.

Sadly, Tapia never once encountered compassionate doctors or caregivers in the United States as kind, sympathetic and caring as his beautiful wife. It should be remembered that Teresa Tapia was dealing with her husband’s problems while, at the same time managing his career and raising their three kids on her own. She truly is Wonder Woman.

In the ring Tapia was indomitable. He had extraordinarily quick and accurate hands with murderous power in both fists. He also knew where to perfectly place his shots to get maximum effect on his ring rivals. Tapia always threw his punches in perfect pinpoint combinations with blazing speed and accuracy to his foes body and head. Tapia was also blessed with great balance, leverage and a truly granite jaw. Tapia won his first world title on Oct 12, 1994 in his hometown of Albuquerque by stopping the rugged Henry Martinez for the vacant WBO world super flyweight title. It was his proudest career achievement. The biggest fight in his career in terms of prestige, honor and world super flyweight supremacy came against formidable hometown rival Danny Romero on July 18, 1997 in Las Vegas. Tapia won a unanimous decision, adding the IBF super flyweight title to his already impressive list of laurels. Tapia’s beautiful wife was in the ring with him at the Thomas & Mack Center to celebrate his career-defining victory with him. It was the highpoint of his career and life.

There is a touching moment in the documentary that served to define Tapia’s lifelong search to pacify his soul. Tapia tearfully and painfully states in the documentary at one point that the night his mom went out dancing, he patiently waited by the front door for her to come home but she never did. In many ways, Tapia, during the course of his sad life, metaphorically waited forever at the front door for his mom to return to him with open arms and a warm smile. She never made it home. The pain he endured from the loss of his mom at a young age caused Tapia to overdose on cocaine many times but miraculously he somehow always managed to survive once he got to the hospital. He was like a cat with nine lives, but his lives were quickly running out.

More than once he ended up in a coma from an overdose of cocaine. Tapia often told his wife to live for today only, because the past is gone and tomorrow may never come. In a life that was filled with more ups and downs than a runaway rollercoaster, it seemed as if God had saved the cruelest irony of all for last. Shortly after the documentary finished filming, Tapia died suddenly from heart failure in his own home. Tapia was one of the toughest, grittiest, fearless and determined fighters in the long history of pro boxing. For him to die because his heart failed him may very well be the cruelest blow of all.