Background
Tapia was born and raised in Passaic, New Jersey to Dominican immigrants from Santo Domingo, DR. He is fluent in Spanish, which is a given.
Tapia was born and raised in Passaic, New Jersey to Dominican immigrants from Santo Domingo, DR. He is fluent in Spanish, which is a given.
He turned pro in December 2008. He used to be managed by Top Rank, but is now signed with Golden Boy Promotions. A record of 130-13, he competed in the junior Olympics, as well as placing in a number of silver gloves and junior golden gloves tournaments.
Despite this amateur success, his style was much better suited for the prosecuting
Tapia received his first loss on December 7, 2013, in a brutal fight against James Kirkland in which he was knocked out. This fight prompted Tapia to go back to the drawing board, which included replacing his trainer.
Tapia scored a second-round knockout over Mike Ruiz on the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito undercard at the Madison Square Garden on December 3, 2011. On May 8, 2015, Tapia lost to Michel Soro.
Tapia won his pro debut against Edward Smith on December 13, 2008. He scored a six round decision win against Eberto Medina on March 26, 2011. Since that fight, Tapia has been trained by six time trainer of the year award winner Freddie Roach, who also trains superstar fighters Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Ruslan Provodnikov and others
