Johnny Tapia Documentary Movie

Johnny Tapia, a prizefighter who won world titles in three weight classes in a chaotic life that included jail, struggles with mental illness, suicide attempts and five times being declared clinically dead as a result of drug overdoses and was found dead at his home in Albuquerque at age 45 will now be on the big screen.

His live story will be told in an upcoming documentary, titled Tapia, which will make its premiere on Saturday, June 15,  at the L.A. Film Festival.

The film features Tapia in his own words and exclusive interviews with Mike Tyson, trainer Freddie Roach and Tapia’s wife Teresa.

The film explores the glory of his punishing ring prowess and handful of world titles across three weight classes forever jockeyed with personal demons: his mother’s kidnapping and murder when he was 8, drug addiction, mental illness and suicide attempts.

Before the fighter’s tragic death director Eddie Alcazar spent time with Tapia researching a biopic. What would become his last interviews are now the beating heart of Alcazar’s gripping, elegiac documentary.

With “Mi vida loca,” or my crazy life tattooed on his belly. He had made that his motto after he thought he had outgrown his first, “baby-faced assassin.” In it, the bedeviled, soft-spoken champion opens up about the severe ups and downs of a life in which the strategic ferocity of the ring may have been the only true sanctuary for a soul routinely beaten down outside the ropes.

Using first person narration from Tapia himself, archival footage, and personal photos, director Eddie Alcazar paints an intimate picture of the fighter and the man. The rights to the documentary were purchased by 50 Cent’s G-Unit Films and Lou DiBella’s BK Blu Productions.

“I was drawn to the intensity of this project,” 50 says. “His story resonated with me because like Tapia, I too lost my mother to violence and grew up with limited means. It’s a heartfelt story and it was important for me to get involved with bringing this to a broader audience.”