By Keith Idec

NEWARK, N.J. – Glen Tapia’s knockout loss to James Kirkland is mostly remembered for its frightening ending, the way Kirkland connected with a crushing left hook as referee Steve Smoger slowly stepped in to protect a dangerously vulnerable Tapia against the ropes in the sixth round of a bout HBO broadcast.

An undeterred Tapia still took something positive from his lone professional defeat.

“I have a different mentality now,” Tapia said. “The Kirkland thing woke me up.”

If it hadn’t happened, Tapia (23-1, 15 KOs) wouldn’t have made the changes in his preparation that the Passaic, New Jersey, native eventually would’ve had to make. The 25-year-old Tapia thought he was training hard, yet wasn’t quite putting in the work required to give himself the best chance to reach the championship level.

Freddie Roach agreed to train Tapia after Kirkland knocked him out and immediately began trying to transform Tapia’s style. Roach reprogrammed Tapia to box more and brawl less and the results have been good thus far.

Tapia has stopped each of his three opponents since Roach began training him and should move closer to a junior middleweight world title shot if he defeats France’s Michel Soro (25-1-1, 15 KOs) in their 10-round main event Friday night at Newark’s Prudential Center. Tapia-Soro is scheduled to be the main event of a TruTV telecast that’ll begin at 10 p.m. ET and marks Tapia’s most difficult fight since Kirkland beat him. They’ll fight for Tapia’s NABO 154-pound title and the vacant USBA championship.

Tapia feels much better about his preparation for this fight than he did when he encountered Kirkland 17 months ago at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

“People were blaming [former trainer] Alex [Devia] and I was like, ‘What the [heck] are you blaming him for?’ ” Tapia said. “Fighters do that all the time, but [the loss] wasn’t his fault. He got a lot of bad press for not stopping it sooner, but he did that because he believed in me. He believed in what I could do. … But it’s on me. I [messed] up, but it woke me up.

“It made me realize it takes way more than what I was doing [in training] to make it where I want to go. I was kind of coasting. I was knocking guys out, beating all these guys. So I was like, ‘OK, that’s how you’ve got to train to be a world champ.’ I didn’t know what it really takes. Now I know it takes a whole different work ethic. Plus, being with Freddie has helped me so much more.”

Roach is hard on Tapia, but Tapia appreciates that he is being pushed by a perfectionist during training and sparring at Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California. Changing training regimens is the primary reason he has been able to overcome the Kirkland setback.

“Everybody counted me out after that,” Tapia said. “People thought I was never going to fight again. People said, ‘He’s done. His career is over.’ People aren’t supposed to believe in you. You’re supposed to prove them wrong.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.