by David P. Greisman
Photo © Emily Harney/Fightwireimages.com
The world is his. All of its riches. All of the glory. Confidence is everything, and Antonio Tarver is full of it.
He once ruled the light heavyweight division, this man so mighty he felled Roy Jones Jr. with a single left hand. Glencoffe Johnson claimed the throne for a brief period, but Tarver regained power and its requisite prominence and splendor.
Then came the revolution. And of course, “The Executioner.”
Bernard Hopkins’ arrival at 175 pounds was met with little resistance. Venit. Vidit. Vicit. One hour of fighting left Tarver in exile for a year.
Tarver came back as if nothing had ever changed. The world was his: all of its riches, all of the glory. Confidence might be everything, but Antonio Tarver is full of it.
“If anybody wants to dispute whose division this is,” Tarver said after stopping Danny Santiago on Saturday, “come see me.”
Really?
Tarver is as likeable as he is marketable, an accomplished fighter who has always been loquacious without being outrageous. His 10-fight run from 2001 through 2005 saw him rise to the top of the light heavyweight division, earning the 1996 Olympic bronze medalist respect and recognition as the best in his weight class.
Not anymore.
Since losing to Hopkins in 2006, Tarver has fought twice, wins over Elvir Muriqi and Santiago. It’s notable for a 39-year-old man to achieve in a sport that tends to favor youth over experience. It’s little else.
Tarver doesn’t see things that way. In his eyes, he is still the light heavyweight champion, the superstar who draws the most money – not due to all he has done, but rather because of who he still is. Yet like the fairy tale emperor and his new clothes, many look at Tarver and see him stripped of significance. Tarver looks in the mirror and has convinced himself of magnificence.
Step one: Diminishing the loss to Hopkins.
“He’s got one win over me; I never showed up for the fight,” Tarver said on a conference call last month. “Everybody knew I was a shell of myself for whatever reason. Maybe I was just over-trained, [maybe it was] poisoning or the weight issue. I don’t care. The bottom line is he’s never been in the ring with ‘the Magic Man.’ He knows that.”
Step two: Building himself back up.
“The IBO [International Boxing Organization] title is very significant,” Tarver said at a press conference last week. “A lot of great champions who have come before me have won it with pride. I am proud to be a light heavyweight champion.”
What a twofold trick. Not only has “the Magic Man” made his past disappear, he’s also gone alchemist by turning a bauble into priceless gold.
This is not to denigrate the IBO. As sanctioning bodies go, the Florida-based organization has yet to reach the depths of infamy discovered by its more-recognized counterparts. And as Tarver will point out, some major names have worn around their waists what most would consider a fringe title.
“They want to call the IBO a trinket?” Tarver said on the November conference call. “It was good enough for Lennox Lewis to carry, Roy Jones and myself. So I’m representing the IBO. I feel like I’m the best light heavyweight out there.”
Gary Shaw, who promoted the card that featured Tarver-Santiago, concurred with his main event fighter while speaking at a press conference last week:
“I have been a promoter and a fan of the sport for a long time. When the boxing media twists things to fit the bill, it upsets me. If they like a belt or a fighter, they mention it. If they don’t, then they ignore it. I am talking about Antonio Tarver and the IBO title. Lennox Lewis wore the IBO belt, and if it’s good enough for Lennox Lewis and Roy Jones Jr., then it’s good enough for Antonio Tarver.”
It’s true. Jones held onto the IBO belt for years, losing it only after Tarver scored his astonishing second-round knockout in the duo’s 2004 rematch. Lewis was an IBO titlist for years, too, leading up to his retirement. They’re not enough to give the belt the legitimacy that has been bestowed, rightly or otherwise, upon the big four.
The IBO currently recognizes “world champions” in 13 of professional boxing’s 17 weight classes, according to their Web site. Of those, only Wladimir Klitschko and Ricky Hatton can lay claim to being the best in their division, while just one more, Nonito Donaire, can be rightly considered as, at the very least, one of the top fighters in his weight class. The sanctioning body’s belts are oft vacated, with several lengthy stretches of emptiness. As for some of the past title claimants? Lennox Lewis and Jimmy Thunder have never belonged in the same sentence. Again, this is not to tear down the sanctioning body for trying to make it in the Sweet Science. But proclaiming something, as Tarver and Shaw have done, doesn’t necessarily make it true.
And according to Tarver, the IBO makes him better than the last man to defeat him.
“Well, what does Hopkins have?” Tarver said on the conference call. “The Ring Magazine that says he’s the champion? He doesn’t have a belt. What are they fighting, a 12-round fight? The same way he fought with Winky. He didn’t put a belt on the line with Winky Wright. So whatever.”
Hopkins, by the way, took both the IBO belt and The Ring Magazine championship when he outpointed Tarver. The belt was vacant when Tarver won it this year against Muriqi.
Flash back to three years ago for Tarver’s first bout with Glencoffe Johnson. Tarver and Johnson both gave up their sanctioning body belts so they could face each other rather than defend against less-worthy mandatory opponents. And it wasn’t just about the money and the challenge. The one belt Tarver had left mattered to him, and it sure didn’t belong to any sanctioning body.
“It’s a comfort to know I have such a prestigious belt like the Ring belt,” Tarver told scribe Dan Rafael, who at the time was writing for USA Today. “When you get that, you know you are the man. The people know what is at stake here, because we are the two best light heavyweights in the world.”
Tarver’s feelings hadn’t changed a year later.
“This is for the world recognized light heavyweight championship of the world, universally recognized,” Tarver said to a reporter at a workout prior to his third fight with Roy Jones. “You know, The Ring championship, and, you know, everybody’s champion. I am the people’s champion … I represent the masses.”
The world was his. All of the riches. All of the glory. Now it is just Antonio Tarver and his new clothes, one man and his fairy tale.
The 10 Count
1. Vernon Forrest retained his junior middleweight title on the undercard of Tarver-Santiago, scoring an 11th-round technical knockout over former welterweight titlist Michele Piccirillo.
With the 154-pound division essentially a barren wasteland in terms of the potential for super-fights, Forrest is wisely seeking to exorcise his demons by putting out feelers for a third go-around with Ricardo Mayorga. Forrest has just two blemishes on his ledger – both were handed out by the foulmouthed Nicaraguan, whose fists prompted Forrest’s fall from grace.
Nearly five years ago, Forrest was coming off of back-to-back decision wins over a superstar named Shane Mosley. He signed a multi-fight contract with HBO and promptly lost the welterweight championship to Mayorga in an astonishing third-round stoppage. A rematch six months later would see Forrest lose to Mayorga again, this time via majority decision.
Forrest went on sabbatical for nearly two years, rehabbing injuries that he said had hampered him for much of his career. He fought twice in 2005, stopping lower-tier opponents Sergio Rios and Elco Garcia, won a controversial decision in 2006 over Ike Quartey and then went back on the shelf for nearly a year. But Forrest returned in excellent form, outpointing Carlos Baldomir for the vacant World Boxing Council belt, and he looked good again Saturday in taking out Piccirillo.
Forrest wants Mayorga, but he doesn’t need him. With the most recognizable name in America amongst the 154-pound titlists, opponents will come. Mayorga, meanwhile, offers little except an opponent who guarantees an eventful promotion and an event worthy of promoting. While Mayorga may attempt to exercise some leverage at the bargaining table, it is Forrest who is among the select few top boxers who would take him on, and it is Forrest, then, who would make Mayorga money.
2. Opening the rare tripleheader on Showtime was a flyweight bout between Nonito Donaire and Luis Maldonado, which Donaire won via an eighth-round stoppage.
The win ended up being an impressive first defense for the International Boxing Federation beltholder, whose previous outing was a surprising one-punch dethroning of the seemingly unstoppable Vic Darchinyan. In Maldonado, Donaire had a capable opponent who showed the determination of a fighter who had once battled current 115-pound titlist Cristian Mijares to a draw and whose lone loss was a technical knockout defeat at the hands of the aforementioned Darchinyan.
With the win, Donaire showed himself to be more than “the Filipino Flash-in-the-Pan.” He now moves forward to a number of potential bouts, be it a rematch with Darchinyan, a collision with Jorge Arce or bouts that would appeal to both foreign fight fans and the hardcore between these shores – unification matches with fellow 112-pound titlists Daisuke Naito and Takefumi Sakata or a showdown with Japanese sensation Koki Kameda.
3. Boxing fans obviously don’t fill up their gas tanks or buy their loved ones Christmas presents, at least not when the Sweet Science is available on pay-per-view. First, Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley faced off on Nov. 10. Thirteen days later, Ricardo Mayorga and Fernando Vargas threw down. This Saturday, of course, brings an extravaganza featuring Floyd Mayweather and Ricky Hatton.
It’s clearly not enough.
On a night when Showtime put forth three fights on premium cable, fans also had the choice of paying to watch a card featuring Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in the main event. And let’s not forget Dec. 15, when junior lightweight phenom Edwin Valero is scheduled to co-headline a pay-per-view that also includes featherweight titlist Jorge Linares.
Five pay-per-views in six weeks. Clearly, this is the season for giving.
4. Not that this past Saturday’s pay-per-view main event didn’t entertain. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. sent fans home happy with his biggest win to date, a sixth-round kayo of 20-1 Ray Sanchez.
Chavez has risen to the verge of stardom with a professional career that has substituted for the usual amateur development. But he hasn’t just been a familiar name getting by on his legendary father’s accomplishments – the kid has gotten in the ring 35 times since late 2003, trial by fire that has helped him develop from a curiosity to a prospect.
Chavez is expected to take on first-season “Contender” contestant Alfonso Gomez next year, a bout that is nearly guaranteed to produce fireworks. In Gomez, Chavez is facing his toughest test yet, an opponent who has shined against bigger men while under the pressure of reality television and against bigger names while under the bright lights of Atlantic City. In Chavez, Gomez is facing a challenge to his legitimacy, an upstart who is looking to come out on top in a crossroads bout. Both men like to come forward. One will see his career sent a few steps in reverse.
5. On the Chavez-Sanchez undercard, Jorge Arce needed less than a minute to dispatch of Medgoen Singsurat, felling the former flyweight champion for the count of 10 with a body shot.
The win is bound to work as a confidence-booster for Arce, who has won two straight since being summarily out-boxed in April by junior bantamweight titlist Cristian Mijares. It’s difficult, however, to read too much out of this most recent victory – yes, Singsurat is the man who once knocked out Manny Pacquiao, but that bout was more than eight years ago. Pacquiao lost his title that night by failing to make the flyweight limit; after the defeat, Pacquiao had to jump up three weight divisions to compete as a junior featherweight.
Nevertheless, Arce’s next bout, should it come against former 115-pound beltholder Martin Castillo, will be highly anticipated. A win over Castillo, which is no easy task, would land Arce a mandatory rematch against Mijares.
6. Boxers Behaving Badly: Jurgen Brahmer is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 13 on charges stemming from a June 2006 incident in which the super middleweight contender allegedly assaulted a man in the German city of Schwerin, according to news outlet Bild Zeitung (via BoxingScene.com European correspondent Per Ake Persson, with this scribe receiving translation help from reader Kevin Harrelson).
Brahmer also had scrapes with the law in 1998 and 2002 that have left him currently on probation, something that could come back to haunt him should he be found guilty in this case. Brahmer is currently in the top slot in both the WBC and World Boxing Organization rankings, and he is also ranked in the top 10 by the IBF and World Boxing Association.
Brahmer’s last fight was in September against Mario Veit, who 16 months prior had given Brahmer his only loss. Brahmer won the rematch via fourth-round knockout.
7. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part one: Prosecutors have dropped all charges against Nate Campbell relating to a Sept. 27 incident in which the lightweight contender had been accused of forcing his way inside a former girlfriend’s Florida home, assaulting her and preventing her from calling the police, according to The Tampa Tribune.
Campbell had been facing felony charges of armed burglary of a dwelling with assault, false imprisonment and tampering with a witness, as well as a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence battery. He was denied bail twice before being released mid-October on his own recognizance.
Campbell is the mandatory challenger for the IBF belt currently held by unified lightweight titlist Juan Diaz.
8. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part two: Mehrdud “Takaloo” Takalobigashi is also in the clear, with prosecutors in Britain dropping charges that the welterweight fighter committed benefit fraud, according to BBC News.
Takalobigashi’s wife pleaded guilty and is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 14.
Authorities alleged that Takalobigashi and his wife made false claims for social security, housing and council tax benefits over a 41-month period between 2003 and 2006.
Takalobigashi last fought in April, losing a unanimous decision to Michael Jennings.
9. Kermit Cintron’s injury suffered in his Nov. 23 stoppage of Jesse Feliciano has been diagnosed as ligament damage in his right hand, according to a press release from Cintron promoter Main Events.
Cintron’s fight with Feliciano was intended to be a simple voluntary defense of his IBF welterweight title in advance of a February unification bout with fellow beltholder Paul Williams. But Feliciano provided a stiffer challenge than expected, and Cintron was forced to overcome both the hand injury and his opponent’s heart. He won against Feliciano, and in turn he lost the opportunity to fight early next year.
Some might question whether the Feliciano battle was worth it, whether Cintron should have waited until next year and proceeded straight into his meeting with Williams. The welterweight division, however, is one of boxing’s deepest, one that includes champion Floyd Mayweather and superstar titlist Miguel Cotto – Cintron needed to stay visible in order to remain a viable contender to the 147-pound throne.
10. R.I.P. Sean Taylor, 1983-2007. And thank you, Gregg Williams, for a touching tribute of only sending out 10 men for the Redskins’ first play on defense.
David P. Greisman’s weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com
