By Jim Dower: Former middleweight world title challenger Gabriel Rosado (24-11, 14 KOs) was too much for Glen “Jersey Boy” Tapia (23-5, 15 KOs) in stopping him in the 6th round on Saturday night at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(Photo Credit: Derrick Hogan – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)
At the time of the stoppage, Boxing News 24 had Rosado up 5 rounds to 0 for Tapia.
Rosado, 31, knocked a badly hurt and bleeding Tapia down with a left hook in round 6. After Tapia got back up, Rosado landed a series of hard shots that caused the referee Robert Byrd to step in and stop the contest. Tapia, 27, was too hurt to adequately defend himself from the shots that Rosado was nailing him with.
Tapia did reasonably well in the first 4 rounds. Things turned sour for Tapia in round 5 when Rosado backed him up against the ropes and unloaded a flurry of shots that landed cleanly. Tapia’s defense was nonexistent during that time. Tapia didn’t block anything that Rosado was throwing. The shots hurt Tapia, forcing him to clinch.
When the two fighters were separated, Rosado spent the remainder of the round teeing off on Tapia with single right hands and left hooks to the head. It was obvious by the end of the round the bleeding and battered Tapia was not going to make it through the next round. Tapia was bleeding from his nose, and his mouth was swollen from the shots he was eating. Tapia also had a large hematoma on the right side of his forehead caused by what appeared to be a head-butt.
In between rounds 5 and 6, Tapia’s trainer told him to move in the 6th to keep Rosado from landing his shots. Tapia initially followed his trainer’s instructions at the start of the round in moving a little bit, but moments later, he backed up to the ropes and was a sitting duck for Rosado. He unloaded on Tapia with big shots until he hit the deck.
In the 1st round, Tapia was hurt twice by big shots from Rosado. The first time Tapia was hurt was early in the round. He seemed to his act together and fight well during the middle part of the round. However, Rosado came on in the final seconds to hurt Tapia with a big left hook. Tapia needed to use his boxing skills, because he didn’t have the hand speed or the defense to deal with Rosado’s faster hands and power.
In round 2, Tapia lost his mouth piece without getting hit. He was coming forward, and the mouthpiece slipped out. In the same round, Tapia took some big shots while against the ropes. Tapia fired back some big punches of his own to let the fans know that he was okay.
The fight began to become one-sided in the 3rd round, as Rosado was trying to take Tapia’s head off with every shot he threw. Tapia’s punch output seemed to decrease in this round as well as in round 4. He looked like he was tiring, and being worn down from the shots that he was getting hit with.
All in all, it was a good performance for Rosado. It was a good win for Rosado from his back to back defeats to Martin Murray and Willie Monroe Jr. Rosado fought well enough to deserve a win over Murray, but the judges felt differently. Rosado got back on the winning track, and impressed a lot of boxing fans with his skills.
For Tapia, this was his 4th consecutive loss since 2015. It’s a sign that Tapia needs to think about retiring. He’s turning into a journeyman, and he seems to be looking worse with every fight. It might be time for Tapia to retire from boxing. It would be sad to see him become just a trial horse for contenders to get wins again and to showcase their talent. Rosado isn’t even a contender in the middleweight division. That makes it especially bad for Tapia to have lost the fight like this. Tapia has now lost to these 4 fighters since 2015: Rosado, Jason Quigley, David Lemieux and Michel Soro.
Rosado’s career moves forward with his win. He looked good enough to stay a relevant fighter in the 160 lb. division, but he’s not one of the very best. Rosado is more of a fringe level guy at this point in his career.