Hopkins Open To Tarver: He Said He Was Poisoned

by Chris LaBate

WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins is open to making further history by moving up in weight to face Antonio Tarver in a rematch. Tarver recently captured the IBO cruiserweight title by stopping Danny Green in Australia. In 2006, Hopkins moved up from middleweight, to dominate Tarver over twelve rounds for the IBO light heavyweight crown. Tarver, who bulked up to heavyweight for a starring role in the movie Rocky Balboa, had to drop nearly 50-pounds or more before the fight.

"If I fight at cruiserweight, let me tell you what weight I'll come in at. They moved it up to 200-[pounds] now, about four years ago. I would come in at 189, 190 - because I would want to still have the speed of a light heavyweight or even a super middleweight so I could make them miss, because the average cruiserweight is not fast. They are not super slow but I should be faster than them because I'm coming up from light heavyweight," Hopkins said.

"[Taking a fight at cruiserweight], it depends on who the guy is. Like Tarver. Tarver, I would love to get that, because it's a rematch. He had a great excuse [for losing the first fight]. He lost 100-pounds or 50-pounds, something like that. You hear him tell it he was dead [in the ring]. And he was poisoned...food poisoning. He did say that, he said he was poisoned."