Manny Tapia: Mr. Nice Guy looks to Capture a World Title

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By Armando Alvarez

Manny Tapia describes himself as the nicest guy in the world, someone who wouldn't hurt a fly, a peacemaker of sorts. The 10 opponents he's defeated in his mixed martial arts career would beg to differ, at least inside the cage. Now this nice guy from Riverside, CA looks to become a world champion when he takes on WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Angel Torres Wednesday at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, NV.

"I'm a mellow dude, the nicest guy in the world," Tapia said. " I like to help people. I'm usually the guy stopping the fights, so it's pretty funny I get paid to fight."

When he meets Torres inside the cage he doesn't plan on displaying many acts of kindness. He's there to fight and he says in his mind he already has the ups on Torres.

"Mentally, I already won the belt," Torres said. "The belt is already hanging in my house. I'm in the best shape of my life, and I know Miguel has beaten many fighters in his career, but he hasn't fought me yet. I hope he's ready cause I am."

The 28 year-old Tapia (10-0-1) admits he didn't expect to be fighting at this level when he first decided to become an MMA fighter. This high school wrestler fell in love with the sport and thought it would be cool to fight inside a cage. 11 fights later he's fighting for a world title; something he hardly believes and neither do his friends.

"My friends can't believe I do this," Tapia said. "They just can't picture me beating somebody up. Girls tell me they can't see me as a fighter and can't believe it's me in there fighting, heck I never thought I'd be fighting for a world title, but here I am."

Now that he's there Tapia looks to make the best out of this opportunity that doesn't come for many fighters. In Torres he's fighting a man who's 34-1, won 15 fights in a row, and his last ten by either submission or stoppage. Torres says Tapia is just a striker who hasn't faced, or trained with anyone who has his ground game. Tapia disagrees wholeheartedly and says Torres will be in for as big surprise.

"I hope he comes in there thinking that," Tapia said with a laugh. "We're mostly a submission camp. I train with great ground guys. He's a great fighter, but he hasn't done a submission I haven't seen. I'm also a good ground fighter. I only started striking more because people like to see that. I don't want to bore people. I want them to see some good action, but Torres is completely wrong that I'm a one dimensional fighter."

This also proves to be an important fight for the Hispanic community. Both Tapia and Torres are Mexican-Americans. Their parents are both from the same city, Michoacán.

It's the first time that two Mexican-Americans are squaring off in a main event for a world title in the WEC or UFC. Tapia feels proud that more Latinos are acknowledging the sport and that he and Torres could both be inspirations for young Hispanics who want to participate in this growing sport.

"We Latino fighters are starting to come up," Tapia said. "We have fighting blood in our bodies. We're not big, but we dominate the lighter divisions in boxing and now we're doing it in WEC. You got me, you got Torres, and you got Leonard Garcia. We'll continue dominating these weight classes.

"We can also be role models to young fighters that you can make it in this sport. I think about it that I'm fighting Torres for a world title and that we're both Mexican-Americans and to be honest it's crazy."

Like Torres and many Hispanics, Tapia grew up a boxing fan. He admired Julio Cesar Chavez, Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and any Mexican fighter who stepped inside the ropes. With the Oscar de la Hoya-Manny Pacquiao fight set to take place three days after his fight with Torres, Tapia feels this is an opportunity for boxing fans to give mixed martial arts a chance.

"They're still getting familiarized with the sport," Tapia said. "They need to go to an MMA event. This one would be a good one to attend. I'm pretty sure they'll turn and become huge fans of the sport. My family was strictly boxing until I started fighting. They understand how difficult a sport it is and now they like it."

Tapia also understands the magnitude of the De La Hoya-Pacquiao fight in the fighting world. He knows fans from around the world will be making a stop in Las Vegas to watch the biggest boxing fight of the year on December 6th. But De La Hoya-Pacquiao, or no De La Hoya-Pacquiao, Tapia thinks fighting in Sin City is big enough already.

"I'm gonna be fighting in Las Vegas," Tapia said. "That's huge. This is the fight capital of the world. It doesn't get much bigger than that."

The 5'5", 135-pound fighter who trains at the Millennia MMA Gym in Cucamonga says he'll have some support among those fans at the Hard Rock, including some of his family members who he says have been a big inspiration.

"They believe in me," Tapia said. "They don't want to see me get hurt, but it's what I do. I don't want to go out and get a real job. I'm getting paid to be people up and not go to jail. It's awesome."

Some strong words from the nice guy, but even these strong words came with a laugh. Tapia has gotten farther than he ever imagined and will have an opportunity to become a world champion on Wednesday. He said a year ago it seemed so unrealistic that he doesn't know what he'd do if he wins the title.

"I have no idea. I'll feel good, that's for sure," Tapia said. "I'm not gonna believe it. It's like a dream."