Johnson Earns Split Decision Against Tarver
by David P. Greisman
Two men, two light heavyweights whose knockout upsets over Roy Jones, Jr. brought them together tonight in a battle to see who was the true king. Fittingly, Antonio Tarver, whose second round KO over Jones last May shook up the boxing world and gave the Magic Man revenge for a previous decision loss, strolled to the ring wearing a crown, with the promise that if his opponent defeated him, the bejeweled headgear would be given in lieu of major championship belts. And after twelve rounds of back and forth, energetic and exciting boxing at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, there was indeed a humble Jamaican ascending to his new seat atop the 175-pound throne.
With a determined and gritty approach, Glencoffe Johnson moved to 42-9-2 (28), taking a close split-decision, something that he was often deprived of in the past, as well as the belts of the Ring Magazine and the fringe IBO sanctioning body. With judges Melvina Lathan and Chuck Giampa scoring the bout 115-113 in favor of Johnson, and Marty Denkin’s 116-112 scoring as the sole support for Tarver, the modest gentleman may have just established himself was the best. Quite ironic when considering that after outworking and knocking Jones out in the ninth round just three months back, the Miami resident declared himself as “not the best in the world. I’m just the man who is willing to fight the best.” In an interview shortly after tonight’s victory, his line had not changed. “No, I am not the best,” he said. “I’m still looking for the best.”
Johnson was definitely in the ring with one of the best, and despite his declarations to the contrary, his workmanlike but skilled efforts prove that he belongs in the upper echelons as well. He came ready to fight, staying active with his punch output and body movement, hanging tough against adversity while he and the odds-on favorite provided an early Christmas present to the fans. The contest, which both fighters voluntarily dropped their titles for in favor of making a good match for greater money, was rough and tumble, as the action and the advantages shifted between two men in their mid-thirties who had just finally hit it big.
Like his approach against former pound-for-pound monarch Jones, the Road Warrior came out in the first round looking to smother Tarver, touching him up with anything and everything he could, landing solid rights hooks to the body and shots to the head, including a left hook that landed right on the button on Tarver’s chin. Tarver, for his part, weathered the storm in the first minute and a half, covering up and measuring for himself what he would be up against. As Johnson’s activity waned, Tarver began to back up, searching for room in which he could shoot out his long jab and straight left at a comfortable distance. By the end of the round, some fans were booing quite needlessly, and they would not feel the need to do so again as the feeling-out period ended and an interesting fight began.
In the second round, Tarver continued to let Johnson be the aggressor, looking for kinks in his opponent’s defense and opportunities to counterpunch, finding his niche with a series of three punch combinations, letting his hands go while jabbing Glencoffe’s body and lifting uppercuts to his chin. Yet in a pattern that would be repeated for the rest of the fight, Johnson responded to Tarver’s assault with one of his own, battling back with accurate punches in-between Tarver’s gloves, to his arms, his body, anywhere he could land.
Before round three began, Tarver’s trainer Buddy McGirt asked his protégé to stop headhunting and go to Johnson’s body, a direction only partially listened to as the Magic Man continued to focus on flurries to the head with the occasional body shot, an effective approach as his jab kept a safe distance between the two while his stubborn opponent kept the pressure on, following intently. Round four saw more of the same, as Tarver’s strategy of backing up and circling in order to get punching room gave him the clear advantage, although he still was not committing fully to the body attack.
Round five saw a role reversal of sorts as Johnson was quite active while Tarver seemed to have taken the round off, with the former landing a barrage of uppercuts, hooks and jabs on the latter, seeming to have stunned the gregarious Tampa citizen with one of his hard shots. As a response, Tarver increased his activity in round six, becoming the aggressor for a short period of time until the fight reverted back to its old form, with Johnson stalking, his right glove attached to his cheek in order to protect himself from Tarver’s dangerous left. An accidental headbutt from Tarver created a cut over Johnson’s left eye, and Tarver continued throwing punches in bunches, landing often, all while Johnson took it all and kept stalking, trying to close in on his target.
The second half of the fight began with the two combatants exchanging jabs, but Johnson soon began pushing his punches while accompanying them with grunting not heard since Martina Navratilova was dominating women’s tennis, attempting to overwhelm Tarver with one-twos so as to not let him get off. Although Glencoffe looked quite tired, the round was clearly his, and as an additional bonus the cut from the clash of heads had been taken care of and would not interfere with his abilities for the remainder of the night.
The seesaw battle turned back in the other direction again in round eight, as Tarver gave Johnson a taste of his own medicine in letting his hands go and just touching, touching, touching him, even seeming to have hurt him at one point. Both fighters showed signs of exhaustion, as their punches began to loop and the amount of clinches increased, thanks in part to both their sustained levels of activity and the amount of body punches that each had taken.
In Tarver’s corner between rounds eight and nine was an interesting exchange between the fighter and McGirt, with Buddy’s insistence that “you need every round” was met with a response of “I don’t understand.” McGirt attempted to hammer in his message with “It’s the truth! It’s the truth!” yet Tarver instead came out quite lackluster for the next six minutes. Round nine was difficult to score, with neither pugilist dominating the other, and an argument for Tarver for his few clean shots that landed would have no edge over Johnson and his aggression. Tarver continued to take a rest in round ten, as he ran about the ring a la Oscar De La Hoya in the latter rounds against Tito Trinidad. The Road Warrior provided a majority of the offense, winning the last three minutes going into the championship rounds.
Having caught his breath, Tarver rejoined the fight in round eleven as both fighters came out seeking to gain a tactical advantage, boxing until Tarver landed a left, which Johnson seemed to shrug off as he continued to charge like a bull, landing shots as Tarver let his opponent attack whenever his own assault had finished. They exchanged combinations for about two minutes until Tarver landed a hard left, followed by a counter right, which was only responded to a short bit later with a judo throw by Johnson. The move showed the never ceasing motivation of Johnson, a former construction worker, and with about ten seconds left he landed a hard right that stunned Tarver and opened him up for a mauling in the corner until the bell rang.
The final round began with both fighters jabbing and throwing crosses, but much as had been the case for the previous eleven rounds, a rumble influenced by the skills each had gleaned from the sweet science commenced. Tarver controlled most of the twelfth round, with Johnson finally seeming to be too exhausted to let his hands go, yet with twenty seconds left Tarver stumbled after stepping on Glencoffe’s foot, and it would be curious to know if the loss of balance had any effect on the judges’ scorecards.
As it was, Antonio Tarver may have once again lost a close decision when he had ample opportunity to come out as the victor. Like in his first fight with Jones, Tarver seemed to ignore the intelligent instructions of Buddy McGirt, taking rounds off and tempting the fates with the officials’ decisions. Against Jones, Tarver let Jones have his fight in the middle of the ring at times instead of against the ropes, where the bigger Tarver had the clear advantage (a strategy that Johnson employed in his own victory against Jones). This time, Antonio refused to unleash an ample arsenal in the late rounds, feeling overconfident that he had a lead, and instead letting a win that would have even further defined his career go down the drain.
Tarver, although disappointed, gave Johnson his due, calling him a “gallant fighter” who was gutsy and capable of taking “some good hard shots.” Johnson, ever appreciative, complimented his vanquished foe as “a great fighter,” a comment that for once seemed to come out of honest admiration and not politically correct description (See: Vitali Klitschko calling Danny Williams “a great fighter). Both boxers seem inclined to a rematch, and with the show that these two put on tonight combined with a lack of other highly marketable opposition, it would not be surprising for there to be a sequel soon.
With tonight’s results, Antonio Tarver and Glencoffe Johnson have garnered money and attention the likes of which they would not have seen if not for their fights with former light heavyweight king Roy Jones, Jr. The question now for each is where they can go from here. Will Johnson seek a rematch at a catch-weight with Bernard Hopkins, seeking to make up for his eleventh round TKO defeat all the way back in 1997? Has Tarver done all that he desires at his current division, and take the tempting step up to heavyweight for the biggest purses on the grandest stage of them all? Although they are closing in on forty, they are not yet in the twilights of their careers, but Tarver and Johnson will need to take advantage of the opportunities while they can.
