For These Little Guys, Matchup Couldn’t Be Bigger

Danny Romero and Johnny Tapia, two little men, half-heavyweights from the same fight-crazy town, finally face each other tonight, after years of taunts and screams, arguments and promises.

For the boxing game, this junior-bantamweight title unification fight is a desperately needed bout between true and longtime rivals--not a promoter’s concoction or a carnival sideshow or another heavyweight humiliation.

But for the people of Albuquerque, Romero vs. Tapia is tantamount to the culmination of a town feud, a lingering, broiling

clash of styles and personality shipped to the Thomas & Mack Arena, broadcast live on HBO.

Romero, the International Boxing Federation champion, is 23, seven years younger than Tapia, and has had the smooth run to the top, becoming the first American to win a flyweight title three years ago before moving up to the 115-pound class.

He has had only one trainer--his father, Danny Sr., his whole life--has never had public personal problems and is one of the biggest punchers the lighter divisions have ever seen.

Tapia, the World Boxing Organization champion, never knew his father and witnessed his mother’s rape and murder as an 8-year-old. He has battled drug addiction much of his life--including a three-year suspension from boxing after testing positive for cocaine--has been convicted of aggravated assault and has switched trainers three times in the last year (and once, a decade ago, was briefly trained by Danny Romero Sr.).

Romero (30-1, 27 knockouts, his only loss a technical knockout against Willy Salazar in 1995 after fracturing a bone in his left eye socket) is stronger, flashier--”he’s big-headed,” added Tapia--and far more appealing to sponsors and people outside the Albuquerque boxing base.

Tapia (40-0-2, 23 KOs) is faster, wilder, and far more willing to absorb punishment in order to demonstrate his toughness. In one nod to practicality, Tapia permanently moved to Big Bear a few years ago to remove himself from the hometown party scene, but is still beloved in Albuquerque for staying true to his nature and to the neighborhood’s sensibilities.

The Las Vegas Hilton was scared enough about the emotions of the predominantly Albuquerque crowd that, in the Tyson aftermath, it stunningly pulled out of this fight, though its 6,500-seat ballroom was sold out, leaving promoters Bob Arum and Cedric Kushner to scramble to land Thomas & Mack.

“You’ve been taken care of like a little baby,” Tapia said to Romero during their one joint appearance, a recent conference call on which they were patched in from different cities. “But this time, there’s nobody there to jump in for you.

“I’m a hard man to take down. You’re going to freak out when you hit me and I just laugh at you. I’ve been hit by everything, and I won’t go down because of you.”

Appropriately, the matchup (they both weighed in at 114 pounds Thursday) turns on the ability of each fighter to neutralize the singular strength of the other: Can Tapia, who has a tendency to get hit, weather the first giant Romero flurry and bring him into the later rounds? Can Romero, who had that one mental breakdown against Salazar, grind it out against the frenzied Tapia if things start turning against him?

Romero, who is making $450,000 for this fight (Tapia is receiving $400,000), as is his habit, stayed away from the incendiary talk during the call.

“I’m not here to do my best--I’m here to win and win and win,” Romero said. “It’s getting to where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. This is the easy part--going off and acting like an idiot is not my nature. I leave that to someone else.”

Neither fighter wanted to address how the bitterness between the two began, though many observers point to Danny Romero Sr.’s break from Tapia and ensuing desire to protect his son from similar personal travails and say that Tapia believes the Romeros look down on him.

“I don’t want to go through all that,” the junior Romero said. “This is just back-and-forth, it’s just talking.”

Said Tapia, who has defended his title 10 times: “It’s my life. It’s a do-or-die situation for me. I refuse to go down and I refuse to lose.”

LAST-MINUTE SWITCH

Tapia prepared for this fight in typical tumultuous fashion. Last May, he was arrested in Big Bear on gun-possession charges that could have violated his parole, but police dropped the charges.

Along the way, he and his wife, Teresa, spent several weeks with veteran trainer Jesse Reid in Big Bear, soured on him last month, switched to Emanuel Steward for a few days, got upset that Steward wouldn’t stay in Big Bear full time once Oscar De La Hoya and Lennox Lewis left town, and landed with Hall of Famer Eddie Futch for the final few weeks of training.

“When there’s nothing going wrong in my life, there’s nothing right,” Tapia said. “I’ve always trained myself anyway. I could even change right now and it wouldn’t make any difference.

“All I really need is somebody to give me water in the corner--I’ll take care of the rest.”

GEORGE VOLUNTEERS

The division, of course, is a mess, full of criers, quitters, biters and brittle-chinned whiners. What a grand list: Oliver McCall, Mike Tyson, Henry Akinwande, Riddick Bowe, Frans Botha, Bruce Seldon, Andrew Golota. . . .

Is George Foreman, once again, the middle-aged man to wade back in and--for a formidable price-- put some spirit back into the heavyweights?

“Every time I come back onto the scene, one time after another, I try to help out everybody else and get everybody liking boxing again,” Foreman said Thursday, referring to his shocking 1994 knockout of Michael Moorer.

So Foreman, 48, coming off a slam-bam decision victory over Lou Savarese earlier this year, is campaigning for a rematch with Evander Holyfield, though Holyfield has indicated he wants to fight Moorer in November.

“George Foreman vs. Holyfield is the only fight out there,” Foreman said. “Let’s get this fixed up for a while. If the movie industry has a flop, you go back to the old faithfuls.”

But doesn’t Holyfield, after successive victories over Tyson, have the right to go after Moorer, who not only carries the IBF belt but who beat Holyfield in 1994?

“I can’t fight the only man whoever really whupped me, Muhammad Ali--that’s never going to happen, and I’ve moved on,” Foreman said. “You have to have integrity.”

QUICK JABS

William Guthrie, a contemporary of Roy Jones Jr. who has come from relative obscurity to capture the attention of boxing insiders, goes up against Darren Allen for the vacated IBF light-heavyweight title to headline Saturday’s card at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio. . . . Rafael Ruelas, who scratched from his last fight because of a damaged knuckle, faces Mike Griffith on the undercard. . . . On Sunday, IBF middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins headlines another card at Fantasy Springs.

Forum Boxing has scheduled two shows in three days; first up is the Hector Lopez-Mark Lewis bout Saturday at the Tropicana in Las Vegas on Channel 9. Two days later, Jorge Eliecer faces Oscar Maldonado for the vacant WBO bantamweight title at the Forum.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Facts

* What: Junior-bantamweight title fight.

* Who: WBO champion Johnny Tapia (40-0-2, 24 knockouts) vs. IBF champion Danny Romero (30-1, 27 knockouts).

* Where: Thomas & Mack Arena, Nevada Las Vegas campus.

* When: Card starts at 6 tonight.

* TV: HBO.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Calendar

* Tonight: Jaime Ocegueda vs. Tyrone Bennett, junior-welterweights; Irvine Marriott, 7:30.