By Chris Robinson
Passaic, New Jersey native Glen Tapia was a bit out of his element recently with a quick vacation to the Las Vegas area. The undefeated junior middleweight has been on several people's radar over the past six months for various reasons and true enough, in speaking with the 21-year old on a first hand basis I find it hard not to root for the kid.
Tapia is a big fan of the movie The Hangover, a fan favorite detailing the antics of three grown men who let loose in Las Vegas while at a buddy's bachelor party, yet he insisted he didn't come to the area to party or play around. Even while on a short trip Tapia found time to fit in some training as well as doing several runs up the nearby Mt. Charleston hills.
I met up with Tapia a day before he was to leave the Nevada area and although we both were pressed for time, a few telling moments came from our brief rap session. From traveling overseas to work with the world's premier fighter, signing a new deal with the sport's most influential promoter, and inching ever-closer to fame, Tapia spoke like a man still reaching for the stars.
Back to reality after a taste of fame
Tapia cracked a grin when I told him that I had been in Los Angeles at the Wild Card Boxing Club a few days earlier for Manny Pacquiao's open media workout. Tapia, of course, gained some notoriety after serving as one of Pacquiao's chief sparring partners for his November victory over Antonio Margarito and the two men had an instant bond with one another.
For his duties with Pacquiao, Tapia had to travel to Baguio City in the Philippines for about a month's time, as the Filipino icon often has the first half of his training camp in his homeland before venturing back to America. While in the Philippines Tapia admits that he was taken back by just how much notice he received.
"When I was in the Philippines I got a taste of fame, for sure," said Tapia. "I mean, everywhere I went I was just surrounded by people. People loved me over there and it was a great feeling. Even going to a McDonalds I would get noticed."
While the feeling of being a star was something Tapia enjoyed, for now he prefers the slight obscurity of being back home in his native New Jersey.
"That's why I kind of like coming back home because I'm back on my block. Now that I'm home it's like nobody cares who I am because everybody knew me before and it feels good actually."
Not too much of a care
"I would say I'm a fan of the sport. I always keep my eye on guys at 154 pounds."
That's what Tapia told me when I asked him if he paid close attention to all of the action taking place in the boxing world. A junior middleweight contender with a record of 9-0 with 5 knockouts, it's only natural for Tapia to size up guys near his weight class but when I tried to perk his interest by asking his thoughts on pugs such as Saul Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. he didn't really take the bait.
"I don't care about anybody right now. The thing is, I've never been a trash talker and I don't have anything to say like that. I just try to work on myself and to also learn from the great fighters I've been around"
Catching Arum's eye and returning to the ring
While training in Baguio last year, Tapia definitely caught the eye of Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who had flown into town to check out Pacquiao's progress for Margarito. Arum was fortunate enough to witness some serious sparring between Tapia and Pacquiao and later approached the then 20-year old.
"Yeah, Bob definitely saw me and Manny go at it. We had some hard sparring and he liked what I saw. I talked to him afterwards and he liked where I was coming from, so that's probably why he was interested," Tapia added.
Tapia is referring to his recent co-promotional pact with Top Rank, which was worked out by his manager Pat Lynch last October. Tapia signed a four-year deal with Arum's company and is coming off of a six-round decision over Eberto Medina on March 26th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, a fight that took place underneath Yuriorkis Gamboa's sensational destruction of Jorge Solis.
Now into his third year as a pro, you can almost sense that Tapia is a new man after the roller coaster ride that he has been on the past half-year.
"It was great," Tapia said of his latest victory. "I came into that fight very confident. I had been working on a lot of things. I was training at the PAL gym in Passaic, back home."
Tapia is tentatively scheduled for a June 25th appearance at the South Philly Arena in Pennsylvania but noted that he might also be seeing some action next month, depending on how everything works out.
