Antonio Tarver Wants Heavyweight Title Shot – So What?

by Charles Jay

I always said that I wish the internet was so widespread when I was managing fighters, because of all the writers and bloggers who would write a story about my fighter and I “wanting” something. We “wanted” a fight with the WBO champion. We “wanted” a fight with the WBC champion. We “wanted” a fight with the WBA champion.

What we got was the IBC title fight. What’s the IBC, you ask? See what I’m saying?

It’s a good thing my fighter had already been a WBA champion, or he would have been unfulfilled forever.

But hey – if we had a few internet writers to talk to, at least we could have gotten a cheap story out of it and at least a little free publicity.

Just because a fighter “wants” something doesn’t necessarily make it a story.

When the champion in a particular division wants to fight a challenger in that division, THAT’s news.

With all that as a lead-in, maybe it’s a letdown that Antonio Tarver “wants” a heavyweight title shot against Wladimir Klitschko, now that he’s heard that Klitschko will be fighting the 5’11″ Jean-Marc Mormeck in December.

And I am writing a story about it.

But only because it illustrates a couple of points.

I will say this – by virtue of a couple of wins over Roy Jones, Tarver might have better credentials to fight Klitschko than Mormeck does. And of course he wants the payday. Who wouldn’t?

Of course, a name like Tarver is only being discussed because there is such a dearth of real prospects in the heavyweight division. That’s why fighters like Mormeck or Tomasz Adamek move up to the heavyweights, because they know that not only is the division thin, but it offers more money, and has champions like the Klitschko brothers who are perfectly willing to fight challengers who are much smaller.

And it doesn’t seem to even occur to Tarver that there might be a ladder to climb in order to get that title shot. What he’s got in his favor is that he has registered those two wins over Jones, which took place at light heavyweight, but after Roy had won the WBA heavyweight crown over the ubiquitous John Ruiz.

What’s NOT in his favor is that in the last five years he has lost twice at 175 to Chad Dawson, was beaten by a middleweight moving up (Bernard Hopkins) and fought one time over 200 pounds, against the very ordinary Nagy Aguilera, in a fight where he looked ordinary as well.

He recently scored a ninth-round TKO over Danny Green, but really, while that may qualify him for the top spot among cruiserweights, it does not a heavyweight challenger make.

At least we can say that Adamek and Mormeck fought a few heavyweights, and in Adamek’s case, there were a couple who were not necessarily past their “sell-by” date. Tarver was one of the great amateurs of his time, a prize pupil of the man who I consider to be one of the great trainers in boxing (Jimmy Williams), a Floridian, and a victor over Jones when he still had a trace of the talents that had elevated him to #1 pound-for-pound status.

That’s why he gets respect from me, and that’s why he’ll get a story from me. This isn’t a guy who is bitter because he wasn’t invited to the “cool kids” table. He has at least been the focus of the boxing world before.

And frankly, as far as I’m concerned, he can become very relevant again, if he can establish himself as a cruiserweight force, which means making a couple of defenses and making them quick, because at age 42 he doesn’t have a lot of time left. But if he “wants” something, he should go out and earn it against the big boys – and that doesn’t mean against a guy who was knocked out in three rounds by Chris Arreola and two rounds by a shot Sam Peter – because the heavyweight division should be treated like a whole different ballgame.

After all, what the hell would a heavyweight title be worth if it wasn’t?