Great Turf Wars

Musashi · Post by **Musashi** » 13 May 2008, 10:56

I remember watching Johnny Tapia vs. Danny Romero at home on HBO when I was 16. Romero, the clean-cut kid who made everyone proud and walked a straight line. Tapia, who came up the hard way and couldn't stay out of trouble, lucky to be alive. HBO was showing the beefed up security. Everybody had to go through metal detectors. Police were everywhere near ringside. The announcers even mentioned that officers specially trained in gang activity were situated within the crowd to watch for gang signs and such. The fight was such a big concern that they couldn't hold it in Albuquerque. They had to move it up to Vegas. In Albuquerque, HBO covered a theater that was showing the fight. Watching all of this you had to seriously hope that the event would come and go without incident. Final bell rang and police officers swarmed the ring ready to handle any situation. It turned into a great fight and everyone apparently stayed on good behavior, but this was truly the bout for King of Albuquerque.

-KOKid- · Post by **-KOKid-** » 15 May 2008, 09:53

That was a great fight, but a surprisingly easy one for Tapia.
He proved to be a few notches better than Romero.

Didn't they become friends after the fight?
I seem to remember Romero Snr. even trained Tapia for a short while.

Musashi · Post by **Musashi** » 15 May 2008, 13:26

-KOKid- wrote:That was a great fight, but a surprisingly easy one for Tapia.
He proved to be a few notches better than Romero.

Didn't they become friends after the fight?
I seem to remember Romero Snr. even trained Tapia for a short while.

I don't know about now, but the Romero camp shunned Johnny when he tried to do the post-fight "pay your respect to your opponent" deal. They turned their back on him.

This was Johnny at his best I think.