by David P. Greisman
Antonio Tarver has no desire to face any other ranked heavyweights after his upcoming bout against Steve Cunningham. That’s because there will be no need for anything except a fight with the two men who hold major heavyweight titles, he said.
“I want to face [Deontay] Wilder or [Wladimir] Klitschko. I ain’t got nothing else to prove, man,” Tarver said. “I’m going to prove it all Aug. 14. They know who I am. I got five championships to my name. I don’t have to prove nothing. They know who I am. They know I’m ready to fight. I’m a tough out for anybody. So I ain’t got time to be fighting all these nondescript fighters.
“I ain’t worried about who’s ranked above me, because my name carry weight. That’s it. Whatever I do, Aug. 14, my next goal is to become heavyweight champion, because there ain’t nobody on their résumé that they face that can add up to my name and my credibility in the game of boxing,” he said. “Klitschko or Wilder. Period. Not Tyson Fury. Not none of them guys that ain’t never won shit in their whole career. So I rest my case. Aug. 14, everybody can see where I’m at, and after that I want to chop down one of these giants. That’s it. Period.”
Tarver, 46, is a former light heavyweight champion whose time atop that division ended with a 2006 decision loss to Bernard Hopkins, and he left 175 for good after a pair of defeats against Chad Dawson in 2008 and 2009. He moved up briefly to heavyweight in 2010 before dropping down to cruiserweight, where he stopped Danny Green in 2011 and then fought Lateef Kayode to a draw in 2012.
The Kayode fight was overturned into a “no contest” when Tarver tested positive for a banned steroid. He was suspended for a year and didn’t return until late 2013, this time as a heavyweight. He scored a technical knockout of Mike Sheppard, then spent another year out of the ring before knocking out Johnathon Banks last December. That moved his record to 31-6 with 22 KOs.
Cunningham is 39 and a former cruiserweight titleholder who’s been fighting as an undersized heavyweight since 2012, when he moved up and outpointed Jason Gavern. He’s gone 4-3 in the division. After Gavern came a controversial loss to Tomasz Adamek in, then a knockout loss to Tyson Fury, victories by decision over Manuel Quezada and Amir Mansour, a stoppage win over Natu Visinia, and a debated defeat to Vyacheslav Glazkov in his most recent appearance this past March. Cunningham is 28-7 with 13 KOs.
Tarver-Cunningham is the main event of an Aug. 14 “Premier Boxing Champions” broadcast on Spike TV.
Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com