Tapia reigns with lengthiest career
After compiling a decade of research and with a Jan. 1 deadline for volume one of “The History of Boxing in New Mexico,” writer Chris Cozzone says that Johnny Tapia has had the longest career of any fighter in the 150-year history of the state. Other fighters have had more fights, but Tapia’s 23-year career, from 1988 to 2011, takes the prize. Ironically, Tapia is followed closely by yet another fighter of the modern era. Fighting 21 years, from 1986 to 2007, was Albuquerque journeyman Rudy “Bad Boy” Lovato.
Behind Tapia and Lovato: Albuquerque and Los Angeles welter Tony Chavez fought from 1931 to 1949 (18 years); Santa Fe/Silver City strawweight Timo “Dynamite Tommy” Sanchez fought for 17 years, between 1915 and 1932; as did Bob Foster (1961 to 1978), New Mexico’s only undisputed world champion.
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