lpinoy
10-07-2010, 03:37 AM
C/P
By Bob Velin, USA TODAY
In the 2006 movie Rocky Balboa, Antonio Tarver played Mason Dixon, the biggest, baddest heavyweight boxer on the planet. Of course, he barely beat a 50-year-old Rocky, but that's another story.
If, as Oscar Wilde said, life imitates art, then Tarver is right where he belongs — fighting for the first time as a heavyweight a month shy of his 42nd birthday.
Tarver will make his debut in boxing's one-time glamour division Oct. 15 on Showtime (11 p.m. ET), the network for which he has worked as a ringside analyst since he last fought 17 months ago. His opponent is no Rocky. He's a little-known 24-year-old Dominican fighter named Nagy Aguilera (16-4), whose claim to fame is a first-round knockout of former heavyweight champ Oleg Maskaev in December.
After two consecutive title losses to Chad Dawson at light heavyweight, the last in May 2009, Tarver hung up his gloves. But the fire still burned within. And sitting at ringside analyzing some of Showtime's biggest fights only made the urge to come back that much stronger.
"Being close to the action, sitting there at ringside and observing, I learned a lot," Tarver said this week. "I see something the game is missing. I know it's an uphill challenge, and I know I have more doubters today than ever. But that's the stuff that gets my fire burning."
Despite his age, Tarver (27-6, 19 KOs) has had few fights and has never been stopped, knocked down or even cut. Even at nearly 42, he says, he feels fresh.
"I'm a young 41; I can't stress that enough," Tarver says. "I haven't been abused; I haven't been pounded; I haven't been knocked out yet.
"I'm looking at a heavyweight landscape where we don't have one American we can truly identify with as a future champion, a contender, a serious threat to the throne. I feel that was my calling."
Tarver, a Tampa native, had his greatest moments in the ring against another Floridian, Pensacola's Roy Jones Jr., when he avenged an earlier loss to Jones by knocking the champion out cold in the second round of their second fight in May 2004. He won a unanimous decision against Jones 17 months later to complete the light heavyweight trilogy.
Tarver acknowledges his two Dawson fights were tough matchups for him, but he felt he turned the tables in the second fight. The judges didn't see it that way. "I'm sure we're going to always have some terrible decisions because politics plays a big role in the game," he says.
But that was then, and this is now. While Tarver stresses he's not looking past Aguilera — "He's looking at me like, 'I'm bigger and stronger than this guy, there's no way he can beat me.' " — he can't hide his excitement over taking on the best of the heavyweights.
"This is a great opportunity to bring some prestige back to the division. It won't take these people long to realize that I'm a very serious threat to the crown," says Tarver, who figures to fight at about 220 pounds. "Whether it be David Haye or the Klitschko brothers, the bigger they are, the harder they fall."
"I understand what I'm facing here, and I'm up for the challenge. And like I said, if they can't hit me, they can't beat me. It's going to be my elusiveness, my quickness, my speed and my underrated punching power that's going to really surprise the heavyweight division."
By Bob Velin, USA TODAY
In the 2006 movie Rocky Balboa, Antonio Tarver played Mason Dixon, the biggest, baddest heavyweight boxer on the planet. Of course, he barely beat a 50-year-old Rocky, but that's another story.
If, as Oscar Wilde said, life imitates art, then Tarver is right where he belongs — fighting for the first time as a heavyweight a month shy of his 42nd birthday.
Tarver will make his debut in boxing's one-time glamour division Oct. 15 on Showtime (11 p.m. ET), the network for which he has worked as a ringside analyst since he last fought 17 months ago. His opponent is no Rocky. He's a little-known 24-year-old Dominican fighter named Nagy Aguilera (16-4), whose claim to fame is a first-round knockout of former heavyweight champ Oleg Maskaev in December.
After two consecutive title losses to Chad Dawson at light heavyweight, the last in May 2009, Tarver hung up his gloves. But the fire still burned within. And sitting at ringside analyzing some of Showtime's biggest fights only made the urge to come back that much stronger.
"Being close to the action, sitting there at ringside and observing, I learned a lot," Tarver said this week. "I see something the game is missing. I know it's an uphill challenge, and I know I have more doubters today than ever. But that's the stuff that gets my fire burning."
Despite his age, Tarver (27-6, 19 KOs) has had few fights and has never been stopped, knocked down or even cut. Even at nearly 42, he says, he feels fresh.
"I'm a young 41; I can't stress that enough," Tarver says. "I haven't been abused; I haven't been pounded; I haven't been knocked out yet.
"I'm looking at a heavyweight landscape where we don't have one American we can truly identify with as a future champion, a contender, a serious threat to the throne. I feel that was my calling."
Tarver, a Tampa native, had his greatest moments in the ring against another Floridian, Pensacola's Roy Jones Jr., when he avenged an earlier loss to Jones by knocking the champion out cold in the second round of their second fight in May 2004. He won a unanimous decision against Jones 17 months later to complete the light heavyweight trilogy.
Tarver acknowledges his two Dawson fights were tough matchups for him, but he felt he turned the tables in the second fight. The judges didn't see it that way. "I'm sure we're going to always have some terrible decisions because politics plays a big role in the game," he says.
But that was then, and this is now. While Tarver stresses he's not looking past Aguilera — "He's looking at me like, 'I'm bigger and stronger than this guy, there's no way he can beat me.' " — he can't hide his excitement over taking on the best of the heavyweights.
"This is a great opportunity to bring some prestige back to the division. It won't take these people long to realize that I'm a very serious threat to the crown," says Tarver, who figures to fight at about 220 pounds. "Whether it be David Haye or the Klitschko brothers, the bigger they are, the harder they fall."
"I understand what I'm facing here, and I'm up for the challenge. And like I said, if they can't hit me, they can't beat me. It's going to be my elusiveness, my quickness, my speed and my underrated punching power that's going to really surprise the heavyweight division."