By Frank Lotierzo
Joe Louis was sensational in them and so was Marvin Hagler, I'm talking about rematches. What's a rematch? A rematch in boxing is the second fight between two fighters who previously fought. In most rematches, the favorite either lost or was given a much tougher fight by the underdog than was expected. Which ultimately leads to the rematch. Antonio Tarver is now 3-0 in bouts against fighters who beat him the first time they fought.
Last night after being a six month old ghost, Antonio Tarver (23-3) reemerged as a the main man in the light heavyweight division. Tarver, who lost a split decision to Glen Johnson (42-10-2) in their first fight, won 12-round unanimous decision over him by the scores of 116-112 twice and 115-113, to win their rematch and knotting them at 1-1. Now he is the fighter who has uncontested bragging rights as the premier light heavyweight in the world.
After losing to Johnson the first time, Tarver blamed his performance on outside distractions and not having enough time to prepare. However, that rang hollow to many boxing insiders who know that Tarver never has been able to accept any decision that went against him. Based on his effort against Johnson last night, it now appears that there may have been some validity to that.
This time Tarver showed up in great shape and fought a solid fight in which he set the tempo in round one. Johnson, who is known to fight bell-to-bell was nullified by Tarver's punch output and never really was able to get going. Tarver continually got off first with his long southpaw jab to set up three and four punch combinations, which impeded Johnson's aggression.
Johnson was also in shape and did his best fighting in the second half of the fight when Tarver slowed down after throwing so many punches. But he couldn't take advantage it. By the time it looked as if Johnson could make a run at Tarver, he found his second wind and started letting his hands go again. As noted before the fight, Johnson is not capable of changing and fights the same in every bout. The difference was Tarver kept Johnson from doing what he had planned on, working Tarver's body to sap his strength, only it never happened.
In his last six bouts, Tarver has exacted revenge against the three fighters who have defeated him. Eric Harding trounced an undefeated Tarver, knocking him down and breaking his jaw to win a 12-round unanimous decision. Two years later Tarver avenged the only loss of his career. In the rematch, Tarver put his former conquer down three times and scored a 5th round TKO victory.
In November of 2003, Tarver defended his WBC and IBF titles against Roy Jones at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. After 10-rounds, most observers saw the fight even, but Jones fought harder and did just enough in the final two rounds to justify his majority decision victory. Six months later Tarver devastated Jones scoring a one punch knockout over him in the second round to reclaim the title.
The knockout win over Jones set up the first the first fight with Johnson. Tarver showed up with the mind set thinking because he beat an unbeatable fighter in Jones, it made him unbeatable. Tarver was even with Johnson after 10 rounds but couldn't hold him off in the championship rounds resulting in him losing the decision. With his victory over Johnson in their rematch last night, Tarver can call the shots.
The problem is there aren't that many opponents for Tarver to fight that would bring him a lot of money. The two names that were being mentioned before the fight last night where undisputed Middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, assuming he wins his upcoming fight with Jermain Taylor on July 16th. The other opponent would be a rubber match with Roy Jones, who said earlier this week that Tarver-Johnson was an audition to fight him again. Which if you take Jones at his word, he came out and said he had no interest in meeting Tarver again.
I doubt we'll see Tarver-Jones III. If Jones really wanted to face Tarver again, he would've fought him after being stopped in their rematch. Don't look for the rubber match between Tarver and Jones. That leaves two possible name opponents, Bernard Hopkins and Glen Johnson. Hopkins, like Jones said he had interest in meeting the winner of Tarver-Johnson. I seriously doubt that a fight with Hopkins and Tarver is ever made. Tarver is too big and showed last night he can get in great shape and throw a lot of punches, which would give Hopkins a lot of trouble.
Most likely we'll see a rubber match between Tarver and Johnson. And based off of what I saw tonight, I could never envision any middleweight beating Antonio Tarver.
