Only seven days after Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was handed a gift decision over a reigning world champion Jose Luis Castillo, an equally bad decision was rendered against Castillo's stablemate, four-time IBF featherweight champ Manuel Medina. After throwing an unbelievable 1466 punches in defense of his crown, Medina felt as though he had done enough to win. Three judges disagreed, and Medina's title belt was soon hanging off the shoulder of challenger Johnny Tapia. To be fair, it was a close fight. When it was all over, the Boxing Chronicle scorecard had Medina a winner by only a 115-113 margin, just an easy two-round swing from the 115-113 that Tapia won by. But the arithmetic didn't tell the story of the fight, which in this case was a tale of Tapia being unable to establish a rhythm, set the pace, or unleash his trademark bursts of aggression. What's more, you'd be hard pressed to select two rounds to swing, given consistent nature with which Medina's fists found their target. Boxing Chronicle even scored the opening round, one of the fight's closest, for Tapia. Digging hard to the body from the get-go, Tapia tried to get off to a quick start. He followed by launching a few straight rights at Medina's face, including one that caught the champion's attention. Medina didn't wait around for a Tapia follow-up, and immediately bounced away from Mi Vida Loca. For the rest of the round, if not the entire fight, Medina stayed on his toes. Hopping left and then right, Medina began implementing the style that has driven more than one opponent crazy: punch and move. As he covered the ring's real estate, Medina constantly pushed out a steady diet of flicker jabs. As Tapia landed in the first round, including a nice overhand right counter near the frame's end, these light blows would be rendered insignificant. But as the fight wore on and Tapia's output evaporated, Medina' constant pawing added up to big points. Johnny Tapia isn't exactly known as a knockout-artist, either. He rarely scored the kayo at his best weight, 115. But since moving up to full-feather, Tapia had dropped three consecutive opponents for the count. He came out in the second round looking to make Medina his fourth victim, committing more to power shots than the combination style that had made him a star. Pressing a circling Medina, Tapia followed trainer Jesse Reid's yelled request for a right to the body and a left hook upstairs. Both punches landed flush. Tapia continued to give chase, walking into and through Medina's jab to land two more left hooks and an array of body shots. Underneath the tattoos, Tapia looked a little soft. After over-committing to his power swings, he even looked a little winded. As Tapia stopped punching to get a breath, Medina continued to pump out the jab. While he didn't return fire, Tapia again racked up points by twice standing in place with his hands down and bobbing around Medina's triple-jab. The confident display of defense helped Tapia win the second round, despite a few flush Medina rights near round's end. Before coming out for the third, Tapia could be heard telling Reid that he felt his arms were slow. Maybe Tapia was undertrained, or maybe he was just loading up too much on single bombs, but his assessment was correct. The quick snap that generally defines Tapia's offense was missing. In fact, all of the offense was missing as a slightly-winded Tapia started slow in round three. Medina continued to pile up the jabs while Tapia again tried to simply bob out of the way. After two or three such occasions, Medina wisely moved his jab to the part of Tapia not moving: the stomach. Time and again in the third, Medina forcefully stepped into a jab aimed right at Tapia's navel. While not a flashy punch, it worked wonders. Tapia's legs seem to go soft after a full round of these punches. Not soft like he was hurt and wobbly, mind you, but soft like he was wading through knee-high mud. As the round ended, Tapia looked so listless that Medina finally stepped into him with a combination of something other than jabs... and landed. Tapia wasn't hurt, but after Medina again threw crosses and hooks and landed clean, there was no choice but to give him the round. With Medina bouncing around the ring and throwing constant jabs, it was Tapia's job to either cut off the ring and pin him in a corner, or else punch through the offense to get close enough to retaliate. Instead, a listless Tapia did little more in round four than follow Medina around the ring. All the while Medina was throwing... 130 punches in all. Occasionally, Tapia would get close enough to land a hook to the liver, but mostly he caught Medina's light punches on the face. With Medina's confidence growing, even Tapia's bobbing was becoming ineffective. Twice Tapia tried to slip a combination, got caught, and then stood up straight in frustration with his own lack of timing. The fifth round was another close one, although the level of action hardly qualifies this stanza for Round of the Year honors. Tapia finally trapped Medina in a corner to start the round, and mixed in a roundhouse right and left hook with a few body shots. The mini rally briefly awakened the largely-silent crowd, but soon the fight slipped back into the previous all-Medina pattern. Jab, jab, jab. Medina stuck his fist into Tapia's belly and forehead alternately as the challenger again looked tired. Tapia finally loaded up with a right hand counter over Medina's almost-backhanded jab and the punch landed square and bloodied Medina's nose. Medina jabbed back at Tapia for a few seconds before answering with his own right cross. Medina's right also hit paydirt, bloodying Tapia's nose. The punch didn't hurt Tapia, but he wearily let the momentum of the blow carry him into the ropes. The strands bounced Tapia back toward Medina a few steps, but the bell rang before a proper follow-up could be thrown. A discouraged Tapia returned to his corner. Tapia cleared his head and returned in the sixth with renewed aggression. Chasing Medina with increased intensity meant that the circling champion's back began grazing the ropes more often. This gave Tapia chances to get close enough to land. Focusing again on the body, Tapia crunched Medina with some loud punches to the ribs. Tapia also landed a lead right hand in these exchanges, and the power with which it landed was enough to offset Medina's peppering pitty-patts. If Tapia could get close, his harder shots were more than enough to win. Tapia banked the sixth. Johnny had worked his tail off to catch up with Medina in round six, and he looked like he needed round seven to recover. In his worst round of the night, Tapia simply plodded after Medina, catching most of the champ's 95 jabs on either the face or stomach. Tapia missed with a couple of wild hooks, just about the only punches he threw at Medina in the seventh. And while Medina rarely needed to extend himself beyond the jab to win, when he did throw a 1-2-3, Tapia was right there to be hit. Medina was now where he wanted to be. He had set the pace of the fight, demonstrated that he had the stamina to keep it up, and created a situation where Tapia would have to make the adjustments in order to turn the tide. Tapia did what he could in the eighth and ninth, focusing exclusively on Medina's body in an effort to slow him down. Tapia's decision was disastrous in the eighth, as Medina simply hit Tapia with everything but the kitchen sink while he was trying to get in and land one decent hook to the body. Tapia took a lot to give a little in the ninth, as well, although when Tapia finally dug with loud body shots in this round, Medina's face showed that they were having some effect. Still, these dipping side hooks were not nearly enough to win the rounds, especially with Medina throwing and landing constantly upstairs. Trailing badly on the cards, Tapia suddenly came alive in round ten. He rushed at Medina, pinned him in a corner, then ripped off the first six punch combination of the night. The crowd finally woke up, and Tapia swung his arm over his head to ask for more cheers. When the crowd obliged, Tapia attacked Medina again with an upstairs and down flurry. As Tapia took a breath, he again waved for applause before launching into Medina with his newly quick hands. In these flashes of aggression, the old Johnny Tapia was on display. The punches were crisp, fast, and thrown in combination. Unfortunately, the rally lasted only for a minute. Tapia, again visibly tiring, returned to a body attack. Medina jabbed his way back into contention, but he couldn't pile up enough blows to reverse Tapia's early bombardment. Both fighters looked tired in round eleven. Tapia continued to load up with single shots, and each time he missed he needed 10 seconds to recover. Medina fought the eleventh more cautiously, although he still threw over 100 punches. The round was shaping up to be another one in which Medina won on sheer output when Tapia cracked him with a good lead right hand in the final 30 seconds. Medina took the punch well, but began a hastier retreat when two more Tapia rights landed on his head. Medina never was in jeopardy of going down, but the punches were very effective. If nothing else, they helped Tapia eke out a close round. Heading into the final round, Tapia's corner stopped short of telling him he needed a knockout. They did tell him he needed the final round, a fact that Tapia already appeared to understand. But despite the urgency, Tapia barely mounted an effort in the final round. It was all Medina, bouncing as though he were ready to go 12 more rounds, flipping out his jab in perpetuity, and making it impossible for Tapia to land a punch in his most desperate hour. Sure, Tapia finally got close enough to fire home a few solid hooks upstairs in the waning seconds... but it was not nearly enough to win the round, and not nearly enough to overcome the impression that he had lost the fight. Medina was elated after the final bell rang, but his face slowly turned to stone as decision took its sweet time making its way into the hands of Michael Buffer. 114-114 was the first score. Something fishy seemed afoot. But two scores of 115-113 seemed right on the money, until Michael Buffer read Johnny Tapia's name. By majority decision, he was the new IBF 126 lb. champion. Medina was standing by the ropes as the decision was read, and no sooner had Tapia been hoisted into the air by Jesse Reid, Medina was halfway down the aisle, heading back to the dressing room in disgust. He had reason to be pissed. His title had just been taken in what appeared to be another bogus decision. While closer than the Mayweather contest points-wise, Medina's handling of Tapia was even more effortless than Castillo's taming of the Pretty Boy. It was a bunk decision, and even Tapia seemed to know it. Tapia raised his new belt in the air, but his anonymity on the east coast combined with the questionable outcome to produce an eerie silence as Tapia tried to celebrate. There were no adoring Albuquerque fans there to cheer him on. Tapia now appears lined up to face Naseem Hamed, if and when the former featherweight king ever comes out of hiding. Tapia's promoters had hoped the Medina fight would prime a New York audience for a Hamed-Tapia showdown. Now, it might be best if they look elsewhere. As for Tapia, he can revel in his win if he likes (after all, he's lost a few close ones, too)... but deep down he must ask himself: was this just an off-night, or at 35 is my body no longer able to perform like it once did? It's a question he'll have to answer before risking his new belt against someone like Hamed. On the undercard of Medina-Tapia, Jameel McCline continued his surge in the heavyweight rankings with a convincing win over heavyweight coulda-been Shannon Briggs. The 264 lb. McCline was too cautious to do anything in the opening round, but soon found that Briggs was incredibly easy to hit. McCline looked nervous in the first round. The suddenly 268 lb. Briggs walked McCline down with minor aggression in the opener before morphing into a human target. From the second round on, McCline couldn't miss Briggs with his jab. McCline's stick was most impressive when he doubled up with it, which he often did once his confidence rose in the middle rounds. At first, McCline was too cautious to throw anything beyond the jab... but by the fourth he was following with big right hands. Briggs' only answer was to mouth off... although it seemed to work. McCline could have probably continued to throw one-twos until Briggs fell down, but every time the dreadlocked Briggs taunted McCline, the latter seemed content to simply bank the points instead of take further risks. In the sixth round, McCline finally committed to a punch beyond a cross. After landing a jab and a heavy right hand, McCline whipped around with his hook and slammed Briggs in the face. Briggs flopped onto his back in a neutral corner. So powerful was the momentum of the fall that Briggs' legs flipped up over his head, his soles momentarily pointed at the Madison Square Garden ceiling. Briggs arose with more trash talk, but the fight was basically over. Carrying the 40 pounds weight gain in his newly-muscled shoulders and arms, Briggs was simply too tired to lift his hands to protect himself. For each of the remaining rounds, McCline was able to nail Briggs with a one-two any time he pleased. Unfortunately for his fans, he only pleased a couple of times per round. But, hey, when your opponent is just standing there, why do more? McCline paced himself nicely, upping his offense ever so slightly each round until the tenth, when he simply smacked Briggs around the ring at will. The final scores were all in agreement, McCline over Briggs 99-90 (Boxing Chronicle also scored for McCline 99-90). Jameel now improves to 28-6-3/16 and becomes one of the top contenders in this barren division. There are still plenty of questions remaining about McCline, who after all has only beaten the unproven Michael Grant, the exposed Goofi, and the untrained Shannon Briggs. McCline has a long way to go before he could compete with a Lennox Lewis. But the kid has a work ethic, and now he has another high-profile win. That's more than enough to make millions. Only time will tell if it's enough to make a champion. .....Chris Bushnell (Please send comments to us at: BoxingChronicle@aol.com)