By Cliff Rold
There’s more boxing on television right now than almost anyone has time to watch.
That should be a good thing.
Often, it’s just a thing.
The slate of fights between now and October is of varying quality. Some of it looks good. The rematch between Jamie McDonnell and Tomoki Kameda, Abner Mares-Leo Santa Cruz, and Shinsuke Yamanaka-Anselmo Moreno are all high quality fights worth a calendar circle. There are two solid undercard fights, Roman Martinez-Orlando Salido II and Badou Jack-George Groves, for the big September pay show.
Most of everything else is a lot of run of the mill stuff one might have seen before on Friday Night Fights or now on ShoBox. It’s just on more platforms and more days of the week.
In the absence of the genuinely compelling, boxing can often count on matches where recognizable names combine for a curiosity. Shane Mosley-Ricardo Mayorga II might fall into that category. This Friday’s main event on Spike TV (9 PM EST) might as well.
There was a time when Steve Cunningham-Antonio Tarver might have been a calendar circle. Now, it’s a checkmark. It doesn’t look like must-see TV but, if one is home Friday night, it becomes ‘why not?’ TV pretty easy.
Cunningham (28-7, 13 KO), though 39, is still considered one of the better Heavyweights out there. The former Cruiserweight titlist is not likely to threaten Wladimir Klitschko and was already foiled by Tyson Fury. However, he has shown to be effective in the unlimited class with the right foes. He looked like he’d done more than enough to beat Tomasz Adamek in their 2012 rematch only to lose on questionable scorecards. The same could be said earlier this year against undefeated Vyacheslav Glazkov.
Those credentials keep his clash with Tarver this week from the realm of an old-man fight. It’s not by much.
Tarver (31-6, 22 KO), the former Light Heavyweight leader, is 46 years old and how much he has left is yet to be determined. Since consecutive losses to Chad Dawson in 2008 and 09, Tarver has gone to scratch five times without a loss. He’d be 5-0 but for a failed steroid test after a Draw-turned-No-Contest versus Lateef Kayode in 2012.
Tarver knocked out Jonathan Banks in his last outing. While his reflexes are dulled from the fighter who put together one of the great amateur runs in the 90s before upsetting Roy Jones in 2004, Tarver hasn’t shown himself the sort of ancient that disqualifies him from being taken seriously here.
In fact, both Cunningham and Tarver enter with top ten ratings from major sanctioning bodies. Tarver is the WBA’s #9 Heavyweight and Cunningham is the IBF’s #6. In the case of Tarver, that’s pretty head scratching but then we remember it’s the WBA and shrug.
A win over Cunningham wouldn’t make the rating seem as much a stretch. Look at the ratings of the major sanctioning bodies at Heavyweight, and it’s already sort of par for the course.
But no one watching will be tuning in for any of that anyways. They’ll tune in because names have value and they know both of these.
Given all that both men have accomplished, it’s a hard fight not to be curious about. Cunningham didn’t always get the recognition in the US market he should have for what he did at Cruiserweight. He’s received more attention when wins were less frequent, a testament to what he gives for the fans. Cunningham has been in a lot of good fights. He’s a vulnerable warrior who comes off the floor and fights back. Combine that with health issues for his daughter and he’s a sentimental favorite in his career twilight.
Tarver beat just about every good Light Heavyweight around in the first half of the 2000s, including splitting a pair of excellent clashes with Glen Johnson. All of that will forever be overshadowed by the night he asked Jones if he had any excuses and then cleaned his clock. Often polarizing for fans, Tarver is one of those men who is stamped indelibly to a genuine generational moment.
Now, closer to fifty than forty, he says he thinks he can become Heavyweight champ.
He’s probably wrong.
Whether this turns out to be a good fight or not on Friday, finding out if he can get a step closer to trying might be the most interesting in-ring question boxing has for the next couple of weeks.
Cliff’s Notes…
Roman Gonzalez-Brian Viloria is as good an undercard match as anyone could ask for. Short of a rematch with Juan Francisco Estrada, it’s also the biggest fight Gonzalez could make at Flyweight. It’s far superior to what is left these days of Giovani Segura and while McWilliams Arroyo would have been a quality foe, time is on his side. The shelf life for Viloria, at 34, is shorter and it’s better to see him while it appears he still has some in the tank…Speaking of Estrada, a September clash with Tyson Marquez might have sounded good two years ago. Marquez, still young, has appeared shop worn. Wars with Viloria, Luis Concepcion, and Segura put a lot of miles on him. Estrada had great momentum as the year started. 2015 is a wasted year in his career…Stuck with True Detective to see if season two could stick the landing. It couldn’t…Fantastic Four doesn’t even sound like something to watch on cable…Marco Huck-Roy Jones Jr. sounds like a terrible idea…Best wishes to 1976 Gold Medalist Howard Davis in his fight with cancer. If anyone missed his interview with our Lyle Fitzsimmons this week, check it out…The new Dr. Dre was worth the wait.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com