The 45-year-old Tapia won five championships in three weight classes, winning the WBA bantamweight title, the IBF and WBO junior bantamweight titles and the IBF featherweight belt.

Tapia is a 5-time world champ.  His life was marked by tragedy.  Tapia’s dad was murdered while his mom was pregnant with him.  And when Tapia was 8, his mother was kidnapped, raped and hanged. 

Tapia was admitted to the hospital in 2007 in critical condition from a cocaine OD.  The day after he was admitted, his brother-in-law and nephew were killed in a car accident on their way to visit him.