TAPIA VOWS TO COME BACK
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 10 Dec 2013
Glen Tapia (R), the former sparring partner of "Fighter of the Decade" Manny Pacquiao apparently wants to follow in Pacquiao's footsteps and come back from his 6th round TKO loss to tough James "Mandingo Warrior" Kirkland just like Pacquiao came back from a crushing 6th round knockout by Juan Manuel Marquez, to put on a boxing clinic against former world lightweight champion Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios in Macau last November 24.
In a brutal battle that contrasted sharply with the boring WBO/WBA super bantamweight title fight in which Guillermo Rigondeaux scored a twelve round shutout of Agbeko, Tapia showed courage in his battle with Kirkland that provided the excitement Tapia had promised fight fans.
Boxing writer Keith Idec quoted a disappointed Tapia who said "I'm a warrior. I get better and work harder when I'm faced with defeat. You haven't heard the last of me at all."
But that comeback could take time just like Pacquiao who took almost a year off before returning to the ring to face Rios.
According to Idec, Top Rank vice president for boxing operations Carl Moretti estimated that Tapia's comeback bout won't take place until June or July. Tapia suffered a hairline fracture to his nose, but otherwise was given a clean bill of health before leaving AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center City Campus in Atlantic City on Sunday morning.
Moretti said "I don't want to use that 'back-to-the-drawing board' clich?, but the level at which he'll fight next won't be at this level. And we'll assess what he looks like against an average opponent. If he continues to get hit and loses zip on his punches, then it's a whole other problem. If he shows that the rest helped him and he just stepped up and fought a tougher guy, then we'll take it as that."
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum was hoping that Tapia who was very popular in the Philippines when he served as Pacquiao's sparring partner, would score his most noteworthy win against Kirkland, which would've helped him become a regular on HBO.
While Tapia's handlers still have high hopes for him, Idec reports that among the things they'll attempt to learn is why the well-conditioned Tapia never really seemed to have his legs under him after successfully outboxing Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs) in the first round of a scheduled 10-round junior middleweight match.
Sal Alessi, Tapia's co-manager said "There's just so much left to learn. He's 23 years old. This is a terrible way to have to learn, but this is boxing. It's not baseball, where you lose, 10-0, and go out the next day and start over."
The complexion of the fight changed dramatically after Kirkland connected with a straight left hand that hurt Tapia just past the midway mark of the second round and was mostly one-sided after that with referee Steve Smoger receiving criticism for not stopping the fight until 38 seconds into the sixth round.
By then, Tapia took too many flush punches to the head for his handlers not to proceed with caution.
Moretti made it clear they will "look carefully at every fight he has, starting with the comeback fight. We'll see how he reacts to getting hit and are the opponents that we put him in with, are they in competitive fights that shouldn't be?"
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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