By Mark Vester
Several days ago, Roy Jones Jr. told Sportinglife that Antonio Tarver was a "weak-minded fighter," and picked IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods to beat Tarver on on April 12 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Florida.
"Clinton should win if he applies the pressure from early on," Jones said. "Tarver is essentially weak-minded and he gets nervous. He is mentally not the strongest person in boxing and this will be to Woods' advantage. I think Clinton will win and then he can fight me."
Promoter Gary Shaw, and Tarver, dismissed the claims of Jones, and gave their takes on his recent win over Felix Trinidad, which took place on January 19. Shaw, who promotes the April 12 doubleheader with Chad Dawson defending the WBC title in the co-feature against Glen Johnson, says Jones needs to step up and fight the winner of the round-robin. The winners of Tarver-Woods and Dawson-Johnson are expected to fight later in the year.
"I'm not a believer of people making up their own weight classes in their own fights," Shaw said. "The last time I checked there was no 170-pound division in the whole of boxing and to me that's bad for boxing. "
"Roy Jones, beating a Trinidad who hadn't fought for two years in his last fight, has no dance partner. If Roy wants to think he is someone special again, he is going to have to fight the winner of this tournament somewhere down the line."
Tarver called Jones a washed up fighter who beat a much smaller man in Trinidad.
"Roy Jones is washed up - he beat a welterweight," Tarver said. "I'd love to fight him but he wouldn't want to fight me because he knows it's doomsday."
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