The Damage Done: Glen Tapia

Rising junior middleweight, Glen Tapia, took a brutal, elongated beating at the hands of the returning, relentless warrior James Kirkland. In what was a great matchup on paper turned into a one sided beatdown catapulting Kirkland back into the spotlight Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ.

It was known prefight that Kirkland was a cruel fighter. His concrete hands, incredible conditioning paired with a kill what is before me assault style has led to consistent entertaining battles in the past. Outside of a fluke one round TKO loss at the hands of retired Nobuhira Ishida and trouble against awkward Carlos Molina, Kirkland has caused many fighters to suffer for as many rounds as they can last.

Tapia was an undefeated, Top Rank contender, who was moved well through the ranks and getting his first big test. It was important to prove who Tapia was as a fighter on his HBO debut, and finding the right opponent was important. In came James Kirkland. Beating Kirkland would have escalated Tapia into a world title contender and brought validity to his growth. Kirkland had some boxing troubles in recent fights, which were not so recent considering his troubles outside of the ring. It was a calculated risk, but unfortunately it seemed that Tapia’s corner was too focused on Kirkland’s faults than ruthlessness.

Either the fixation on Kirkland’s faults were focused on prior to the fight with an ignorance of his victories, or giving up anything before a clean knockout in the spotlight was unacceptable for Tapia’s corner. After a good first round for “Jersey Boy”, Kirkland shook off his almost two years of rust and went to work. The young promising prospect no longer had the pop he did within the first 3 minutes. He was already slowing as Kirkland began his famous assault. As time went by, a similar scene continued to reappear. Rather than Tapia sticking and moving, those watching the broadcast became very uncomfortable seeing Tapia’s back against the rope, close up, as Kirkland began annihilating the young contender. Tapia stayed on his feet, but continued to show very few signs of competition. He would throw a few punches but soon find himself cornered and absorbing the onslaught of Kirkland.

Personally, after round 4, everyone around my TV was mentally exhausted and opposing of Tapia’s corner decision to send him out. Hearing the corner discussions- ‘you’re going to stop him,’ ‘tell him your good,’ and asking for a Mickey Ward type corner bounce without any response made it evident that Tapia’s corner believed that even with their beaten warrior who could not keep his eyes open, they could expose and defeat Kirkland.

In the sixth round, normally one of the best referee’s in boxing, stepped in to stop the beating. He is known to let fights play out and let the house fighter fight, but he usually stops fights at the appropriate moment. However, Smoger let this fight continue too long. Additionally, while Kirkland was in kill mode, teeing off on Tapia’s bowed head for several seconds, Smoger stepped in, rather than jump. Because of this, Tapia stood up to acknowledge the stoppage and Kirkland landed two monstrous shots on the upright, untucked chin of Tapia.

Those two shots, plus the 2 rounds of unnecessary punishment, may not have only damaged Tapia physically, but could have ruined a possible fruitful career. Another up and coming fighter tagged as an Arturo Gatti esque figure did not need to take the continued punishment to prove his Gatti style heart. Rather than proving his skills and abilities in the future, he must first prove that this fight did not ruin him, which will be an incredibly difficult task. If, and only if he convincingly wins some testing fights, will Tapia possibly get a chance to step up and contend on a national spotlight. Rather than a young contender just getting beat by an extremely tough opponent, the boxing world focuses on the ignorance of his corner and the unnecessary damage done.