Editing Johnny Tapia (section)

====Early years====
Tapia's professional boxing career began on March 25, 1988, when he fought Effren Chavez in [[Irvine, California]]. After four rounds of boxing the fight was called a draw. He won eight fights that year, five by knockout, of which four were in the first round.
In 1989, he won seven more fights, including a first-round knockout of Abner Barajas and an eight-round decision against [[John Michael Johnson]].

In 1990, he won seven bouts, including an eight-round decision over [[Jesus Chong]], an eleventh-round technical knockout of Roland Gomez in [[Reno, Nevada|Reno]] that gave him the USBA super flyweight title, and a twelve-round decision over Luigi Camputaro, to retain that title. Tapia was, by the end of the year, a known boxer, his name often appearing in magazine articles. However, his career came to a halt for the next three and a half years after being suspended from boxing for testing positive for [[cocaine]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boxingscene.com/johnny-tapia-fails-drug-test-rehab--9911 |title=Johnny Tapia Fails Drug Test in Rehab - Boxing News |publisher=Boxingscene.com |date=2007-08-14 |access-date=2012-05-28}}</ref>

When he finally returned to the ring on March 27, 1994, he beat Jaime Olvera by a knockout in four rounds in [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]]. He won three more fights by knockout, and then he faced Oscar Aguilar on the [[Michael Carbajal]]&ndash;[[Josué Camacho]] undercard in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] for the NABF super flyweight title, winning in three rounds. Five days later the Albuquerque Police claimed they found cocaine after the fight in a bag carried by Tapia. Tapia claimed what the police found was only a soap bar, and the charges were eventually dropped.