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By Jake Donovan - Former light heavyweight king Antonio Tarver has aspirations of one day conquering the Klitschko brothers and claiming the heavyweight throne.
Those dreams – a wild stretch to begin with – remain way down the road after struggling to a split decision draw with Lateef Kayode in their cruiserweight battle Saturday evening in Carson, California.
Scores were 115-113 Tarver, 115-113 Kayode and 114-114 in their Showtime-televised main event, which began slow but picked up steam as the rounds progressed.
The early rounds saw the much younger Kayode winning the fight purely on activity. The transplanted Nigerian wasn’t exactly a ball of energy at any point in the fight, but early on was far more active than Tarver, who fell to old habits in looking for opportunities rather than letting his hands go.
The deliberate start by the 43-year old southpaw essentially cost him the fight, though it also stands to reason that a faster start means that Tarver doesn’t have as much energy in the later rounds.
What became a matter of fact was that Tarver was able to hurt Kayode far more than the opposite proved to be true, despite the younger fighter being billed as the power puncher. It was Tarver who landed the more telling blows in the second half of the fight, scoring with a huge left hand in the eighth round to stun Kayode for the first time in the fight.
The sequence was a much needed shift in momentum and drama, as the bout lacked sorely lacked both prior to that point. The boo birds began early in the evening on a televised card in which all four bouts went the distance and didn’t deliver a lot of action and were loud and clear for much of the first half of the main event.
Tarver’s burst of energy in the later rounds helped turn the jeers into cheers. In the end, it also helped avoid an embarrassing defeat, even if the veteran didn’t quite see things that way. [Click Here To Read More]
Those dreams – a wild stretch to begin with – remain way down the road after struggling to a split decision draw with Lateef Kayode in their cruiserweight battle Saturday evening in Carson, California.
Scores were 115-113 Tarver, 115-113 Kayode and 114-114 in their Showtime-televised main event, which began slow but picked up steam as the rounds progressed.
The early rounds saw the much younger Kayode winning the fight purely on activity. The transplanted Nigerian wasn’t exactly a ball of energy at any point in the fight, but early on was far more active than Tarver, who fell to old habits in looking for opportunities rather than letting his hands go.
The deliberate start by the 43-year old southpaw essentially cost him the fight, though it also stands to reason that a faster start means that Tarver doesn’t have as much energy in the later rounds.
What became a matter of fact was that Tarver was able to hurt Kayode far more than the opposite proved to be true, despite the younger fighter being billed as the power puncher. It was Tarver who landed the more telling blows in the second half of the fight, scoring with a huge left hand in the eighth round to stun Kayode for the first time in the fight.
The sequence was a much needed shift in momentum and drama, as the bout lacked sorely lacked both prior to that point. The boo birds began early in the evening on a televised card in which all four bouts went the distance and didn’t deliver a lot of action and were loud and clear for much of the first half of the main event.
Tarver’s burst of energy in the later rounds helped turn the jeers into cheers. In the end, it also helped avoid an embarrassing defeat, even if the veteran didn’t quite see things that way. [Click Here To Read More]
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