How good was/is Antonio tarver?

most of you aren't also factoring in the fact that tarver started late in his career had drugs problems as well he wasn't a born fighter like roy.

He was good not great. He jumped on Roy right after the Ruiz fight because he knew Roy wouldn't be the same after dropping from heavyweight in such a short period of time. Prime Roy destroys him. to say he jumped on roy after the ruiz fight is 100% false, he had been openly challenging him for years. the reason it didnt happen before the ruiz fight is 100% bcuz of roy, then tarver forced his hand by winning his old titles at 175 when roy moved up. to answer TS question tarver was a great fighter. he had it all, skills intelligence and athletisism. an intelligent lefty who knew hot to use his stance to gain an advantage, knew how to fight in general. underrated as an athlete, he was big, tall, fast and powerful. he was very fundamentally sound, amongst the best defensive fighters of his era with one of the best southpaw jabs ever, good boxing and counterpunching skills and one punch KO power in his left hand. i would rank him 5-8 all time at 175 and about teh same p4p in his era, very underrated and underappreciated fighter. i dont think he would have defeated a prime RJJ but i know roy wouldnt have handled him the same way he did other fighters at 175 in his prime. look at all the trouble harding gave roy in his prime, even though tarver went just 1-1 with harding he was a notch above him imo. he would give prime RJJ a very tough fight, roy would beat him though.

Good champion. Powerful left hand. Nothing special. The best win of his career were obviously the 2 wins over Roy Jones. I think he caught Roy at the perfect time and would not beat a prime Roy. Tough losses to Glen Johnson and Eric Harding which were both avenged. Clinton Woods, Montell Griffin and Reggie Johnson were also way past prime when Tarver caught them. He missed out on his opportunity to be great by suffering losses to Hopkins and Chad Dawson. So other than the wins over Roy, is resume is extremely mediocre at best.

He's an ATG, a 4 time world champ. He's a legend.