Sports

Boxing

Is Tarver to be believed?

By JOHN C. COTEY, Times Staff Writer
Published June 8, 2007

---

ADVERTISEMENT

TAMPA - Antonio Tarver, if it is at all possible, is more convinced than ever that he is the greatest.

And he is, despite all the evidence to the contrary, convinced that a win tonight in his comeback fight over unknown Elvir Muriqi will restore him to his rightful spot atop the light heavyweight division.

And he is, despite a more attractive fight being aired on HBO PPV between Miguel Cotto and Zab Judah, convinced you will watch him on Showtime tonight at 10 p.m.

"Do not let it be said, 'Where were you when Antonio Tarver, once again, put on a performance and showed the world that he is still by far the best?, " he said last week during a spin-session with the media.

But are you ready to believe him again?

The last we saw of Tampa's Tarver, his turn as Mason Dixon in Rocky Balboa notwithstanding, he was being pummeled by a fighter in his 40s who jumped two weight classes to rout him.

There was a brief moment afterward when Tarver stood in a crowded corridor in the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City and talked like a beaten man, humbled ever so briefly by Bernard Hopkins.

But it is true. Time, it heals all wounds.

"I am what the game is missing, " Tarver said. "The old Antonio Tarver, the electrifying fighter that puts those punches together in beautiful combinations with a great display of defense, hitting and not being able to be hit, punching power and boxing ability."

Tarver, 38, says he wants to go out as the greatest light-heavyweight of all time and in to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

To do that, he said, he wants a rematch with Hopkins, but lopsided divisions rarely get rematched.

Tarver's claim to fame, other than his one-punch knockout of Roy Jones in 2004, is his success in rematches. He avenged defeats to Jones, Eric Harding and Glenn Johnson, and thinks making it 4-for-4 is his ticket to infamy.

"I think a win over Hopkins and you would have to put me up there with the greatest, " said Tarver. "I think a win over Hopkins in a rematch would mean that I have beaten every professional I have ever stepped in the ring with; I think that goes a long way."

Tarver even broaches the possibility of a fourth fight with Jones, and matches with Joe Calzaghe and Jeff Lacy.

But he has no interest in meeting WBC champ Chad Dawson, whom many have anointed as the future of the division and fights on the undercard tonight, hoping to force a collision with Tarver.

A Dawson-Tarver showdown would be the fight in the division right now. Tarver is either going to make Dawson wait, or is doing his negotiating out loud.

"If I choose to fight Chad, it will be because I feel like it is a great fight and that when I beat Chad, it will give me something, it is going to add to my ledger, and it is going to add to my legend, " Tarver said. "I do not think right now that he is in a position to command a fight with me."

Tarver is convinced he is right.

If both guys win tonight, it will be a little harder to believe him.

John C. Cotey can be reached at 813-909-4612 or johncotey@gmail.com.

[Last modified June 8, 2007, 18:17:54]