Tarver, Dawson Win To Set Up Potential Bout
HARTFORD, Conn. - Antonio Tarver regained the IBO light-heavyweight title Saturday night, winning a 12-round decision over a game Elvir Muriqi.
The 38-year-old Tarver (25-4) hadn't fought since losing the title convincingly to Bernard Hopkins a year ago. Tarver's only performance since then was opposite Sylvester Stallone as fictional heavyweight champion Mason Dixon in "Rocky Balboa," the sixth movie in the "Rocky" series.
His next opponent could be undefeated Chad Dawson, who successfully defended his WBC light-heavyweight title on the same card, stopping Mexico's Jesus "Chuy" Ruiz in the sixth round.
But the Tarver-Muriqi bout was by far the more entertaining fight.
Muriqi was the early aggressor, working the body in the early rounds, but occasionally walking into a Tarver left hand.
Tarver used his 2 1/2-inch height advantage and longer reach to try and keep Muriqi away with the right jab.
Tarver seemed to take control after opening up a cut over Muriqi's right eye with an uppercut in the fifth round.
By the eighth round, Tarver was clearly the aggressor, hitting Muriqi with a hard left 56 seconds in, following that up with a flurry 30 seconds later, and staggering him with a hard right cross at the 2:13 mark.
He punished Muriqi early in the 10th, staggering him with a straight left and going to work on him in the challenger's corner. But Muriqi would not go down.
The two fighters battled across the ring in the 11th, trading hard combinations, as Muriqi's fans chanted his name and Tarver's chanted "U.S.A! U.S.A!" At one point, Tarver spun himself around while missing a left hook.
Muriqi put Tarver on the ropes in the final round, but Tarver responded with several uppercuts and combinations of his own.
Muriqi danced away the final few seconds with his arms in the air, believing he had won.
Muriqi, 24, is a former kickboxer and New York Golden Gloves champion.
Before Saturday, his biggest fight was a three-round technical knockout of Sammy Ahmad in 2002, a fight in which Muriqui was knocked down four times and Ahmad twice.
Dawson (24-0, 16 KOs), who took the WBC crown from a previously unbeaten Tomasz Adamek in February, was making his first title defense. The champion was in control throughout, using his right jab to set up his straight left, which he threw effectively over the right hand of Ruiz (19-5).
By the middle of the fourth round Dawson has bloodied Ruiz's nose, and a right hook at the end of that round stunned the challenger.
"He couldn't stop my jab," Dawson said. "It was just too fast."
Dawson ended the fight with several hard left hand shots, the first of which snapped Ruiz's head back 2 minutes into the sixth round, he followed that with a flurry that forced referee John Callas to step in.
Dawson said he fought the last four rounds with an injured left hand, which he said "went numb" after he landed a punch in the second round.
"I think the glove was too tight," he said.
It wasn't immediately clear how badly the hand was hurt.
The 24-year-old Dawson, fighting about 40 miles north of his hometown of New Haven, agreed to take second billing on the Showtime card in an effort to gain the exposure needed to set up a marquis matchup this fall with a big name such as Tarver, Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones Jr. or Glen Johnson.
Ruiz, 33, had only failed to go the distance once before, against former WBO light heavyweight titleholder Julio Gonzalez in 2000. He lost decisions to Montell Griffin, Rodney Toney and Paul Briggs.