By Rick Reeno
After watching Roy Jones get knocked out by Glen Johnson, my initial thoughts were about how far Jones has fallen in this late stage of his career. The next day I thought, if Jones is this much of a shot fighter then how good is Antonio Tarver for knocking him out in two rounds? Glen Johnson was never known as a big puncher, even at 160 pounds. To see a mediocre puncher like Johnson level Jones with one of the more vicious knock outs in recent memory, makes the Tarver knock out of Jones look a little less spectacular.
Tarver was demolished a few years ago in a decision loss to Eric Harding. The Harding loss cost Tarver a shot at Roy Jones and haunted Tarver up until the time when Tarver got revenge with a knock out win over Harding. The win over Harding put him in position for a fight with Roy Jones. Since beating Jones in May of this year, Tarver has not done anything to further his career. He seems to attend plenty of fights, but has no time to make any fights.
Just about every big name in the sport of Boxing has had at least two fights this year. Tarver on the other hand has only fought two rounds and does not appear to be back in the ring until next year. I see plenty of writers and Boxing fans saying that Roy Jones is shot, over hyped, old, in possession of a glass jaw and should never fight again. If Jones is all of these things, then how significant was Tarver's win over him. Does Antonio even belong on the pound for pound list based upon the Jones win? If so, does that mean Glen Johnson should be there too? Did everyone jump on the Tarver train too soon?
It makes me think that if Jones has really become that bad, then how good does that make Antonio? This entire situation reminds me of Vernon Forrest. We all jumped aboard the Vernon Forrest train when he beat Mosley twice and look what happened. Forrest lost his next two fights, one by TKO and has never fought again. Could Antonio be another big letdown waiting to happen?
I am not convinced that Tarver is the next big thing until he beats another quality level opponent. The Jones knock out loss to Johnson did as much damage to the credibility of Tarver as it did to the credibility of Roy Jones. Tarver's biggest win of his career, lost a lot of luster when Johnson dropped Jones.
Tarver has talked about fighting Vassily Jirov, Hopkins and Calzaghe, but there is no fight on the horizon. A Calzaghe fight fell through after Antonio wanted "Roy Jones like money". Frank Warren, promoter of Calzaghe said it best, "just because you beat Roy Jones, doesn't make you Roy Jones."
For his own sake, Antonio better sign up for a big fight and sign up now. The longer he waits, the more damage he does to his career. He just saw his biggest win take a hit and casual fans who knew his name from the Jones win, will just as quickly forget.
