Good points Mick and great list of Great fighters....and you are right many of them do go unnoticed but have in every way deserved the attention of all those we speak about on the norm...

Johnny Tapia is actually one of my all time favorites, Mi Vida Loca is a name that could not be more befitting of a fighter if you sat and tried for the Million Dollar prize,

One of the greatest Super Flyweights to ever grace the sport I remember his fight with Danny Romero when he added the IBF SFW title to his WBO version, It looked as though Johnny was on his way to being one of the all time greatest little men to ever put on a pair of gloves, Sadly enough it was no long after Johnny and his drug use became a problem....No matter how bad it got though through the years you never looked at Tapia like one of those loser types who you wished went away...Not even when he tried to kill himself or his wife Theresa,,,you always felt for him in a personal way...almost like a lost family member you wish you could help but they were too far gone. When he spoke you could tell by the look in his eyes there is not a truly bad bone in his body he was just so consumed by the drugs

I had seen him and Theresa in an interview once where it was brought up that she told him she would leave him and could not do this anymore, The hurt in his eyes and the way they teared up actually brought tears to my eyes..I swear after that interview if I could have done something for the man I would have found a way to get in touch with him and offered him any help I could have possibly given, Thats how much you felt for Tapia during those years

In the ring Tapia never left you wanting for more, he has been out gunned and out classed but even when he was out gunned or out classed Johnny fought like a true champion never making and excuse for his loss other then the other guy got me that night what am I going to do..while he flashed that school boy smile....

I remember after his losses to Ayala I truly though Tapia was done with then he comes back to KO Soto a few fights later almost as if he reinvented himself

He fights now for money sad to say...thankfully it is not often but when he was KO'd back in 05 by some kid I never even heard of and unless I looked him up on boxrec could not tell you his name now...It actually hurt...It reminded me of how my Father felt after watching Ali lose to Spinks and have to endure the embarrassment of the Berbick loss.....Reminds you exactly how much you get behind your favorites and what they mean to you....

Tapia is an all time great in my book....A lot of great fight memories from his career.....