Johnson Lashes out at Tarver

From 15rounds.com: Former Light Heavyweight Champion Glen Johnson sat through the post-fight press conference yesterday and listened as Antonio Tarver rejected him as his next opponent. Johnson stopped George Khalid Jones in the 10th round on Friday night in an IBF title-elimination fight and is now in place to fight Clinton Woods, the IBF Light Heavyweight champion. Instead of facing Woods, Johnson wants a rubbermatch with Antonio Tarver. "At this point in my life I am a business man, and I am in boxing to make money. I mean that is what the public wants to see anyway, and now you have Tarver doing this chicken dance, and doing the scared dance around this,” said Johnson, “You see Tarver doing all of this hype talk, but when it comes down to getting to business, he can't get into business, and he didn't get to business last night in the ring either. He talked a lot of hype like he was going to seek and destroy Roy Jones, and he did everything BUT seek and destroy." "Antonio Tarver is a straight up coward.." - Glen Johnson During yesterday's post-fight press conference, Tarver informed Johnson that he plans on fighting a couple tune-ups before he faces him again. "Go fight Clinton Woods," Tarver said to Johnson, "I'm going to take a couple of easy fights before I face a tough opponent." When 15rounds contacted Johnson today, he said the following: "Antonio Tarver is a straight up coward.. He wanted a rematch when I beat him, and I gave him a rematch even though I wasn't prepared. I wasn't ready going into that fight, but I knew I had a date so I went to fight, and take on a challenge to fight, like that man I am. Tarver got his victory, and now it's time for him to step up to the plate. Tarver got his easy fight with Roy Jones, so now step up to the plate, and take on a true challenge THE guy in the weight class that will give you all that you can handle. I mean, at the press conference last night he said that his last 10 fights were tough, and he really wants a couple of easy fights, meaning that he doesn't want to step up to the plate and take me on, he doesn't want take a challenge. I asked him at the press conference, when does he want to get this done?, let's do it again. Now he is saying for me to go to England and fight Clinton Woods, get the IBF and come back... It's a sad case to see a grown man, a professional want to get paid big money, but wants to fight easy fights, and I will be surprised if the public will accept that." Glen Johnson was not impressed with either fighter’s performance Saturday night. "Roy Jones tried to make it an interesting fight doing other stuff besides boxing, running around and clowning a lot," adds Johnson, "There wasn't a lot of fighting going on in the ring, and at a Glen Johnson fight there is a lot of fighting that goes on in the ring. To me the fight was a boring fight." Johnson, 43-10-2, 29 KOs, defeated Roy Jones, Jr. 13 months ago, by way of a 9th round knockout; he fought Tarver twice, winning their first confrontation but only to lose the rematch three months later. The "Road Warrior" began boxing when he was 20-years-old, only six years after he moved from Jamaica to the U.S.A "The Miami Police Athletic Program opened up a gym in the Coconut Grove area where I lived. One day I walked in and talked to them and found out that if you live in the area, and under thirty-one-years-old you could box for free, so I started going." Johnson plans to one day return to Jamaica for a big fight: "There was talk about that when I was the Champion. As soon as I capture the Championship again we can probably do something like that, but right now the Champion (Tarver) is running scared right now. It will take a longer time to get him to fight me than it will take for me to capture the Championship. " In closing, Glen Johnson had one more important thing to say; "If Tarver gets back into the ring with me," he said. "I will knock him out ... and he knows it!