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By Thomas Gerbasi - It should have been just another night in Las Vegas, with referee Jay Nady bringing two fighters to the middle of the ring for their final instructions on May 15, 2004.
“You have any questions,” Nady asked light heavyweight challenger Antonio Tarver and champion Roy Jones Jr.
“I got a question,” blurted Tarver, not content with the usual shake of the head and touch of the gloves. “You got any excuses tonight, Roy?”
At that point, with Tarver still smarting over his controversial decision loss to Jones six months earlier, Nady should have waved his arms and stopped the fight right there, because it was already over.
“It was spur of the moment,” Tarver recalled earlier this week. “I was just so amped up, I just threw it all out there. It was something that just came to me. It was crazy, ‘You got any questions?’ ‘Yeah, I got a question.’ It was one of those things where I was just ready to fight.”
He pauses, then laughs.
“I’m glad everything turned out right. I could have been the laughingstock of boxing.”
Very true, but bold statements require bold action, and Tarver put his neck on the chopping block, forcing himself to deliver on everything he said.
Saturday in Hamburg, Germany, another precocious talent with a mouth that roars and the fists to back it up - WBA heavyweight champion David Haye – will have his chance to live up to everything he’s said over the last few years about his fellow titleholder Wladimir Klitschko.
It’s THE heavyweight fight of 2011, and quite possibly the most anticipated of the last 10 years outside of Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson in 2002. And besides the obvious stylistic attractions of the bout – Klitschko’s dominant 1-2 and size against Haye’s fight ending power and speed – it’s been the psychological warfare building up month after month and year after year that has fight fans foaming at the mouth for the first bell to sound. [Click Here To Read More]
“You have any questions,” Nady asked light heavyweight challenger Antonio Tarver and champion Roy Jones Jr.
“I got a question,” blurted Tarver, not content with the usual shake of the head and touch of the gloves. “You got any excuses tonight, Roy?”
At that point, with Tarver still smarting over his controversial decision loss to Jones six months earlier, Nady should have waved his arms and stopped the fight right there, because it was already over.
“It was spur of the moment,” Tarver recalled earlier this week. “I was just so amped up, I just threw it all out there. It was something that just came to me. It was crazy, ‘You got any questions?’ ‘Yeah, I got a question.’ It was one of those things where I was just ready to fight.”
He pauses, then laughs.
“I’m glad everything turned out right. I could have been the laughingstock of boxing.”
Very true, but bold statements require bold action, and Tarver put his neck on the chopping block, forcing himself to deliver on everything he said.
Saturday in Hamburg, Germany, another precocious talent with a mouth that roars and the fists to back it up - WBA heavyweight champion David Haye – will have his chance to live up to everything he’s said over the last few years about his fellow titleholder Wladimir Klitschko.
It’s THE heavyweight fight of 2011, and quite possibly the most anticipated of the last 10 years outside of Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson in 2002. And besides the obvious stylistic attractions of the bout – Klitschko’s dominant 1-2 and size against Haye’s fight ending power and speed – it’s been the psychological warfare building up month after month and year after year that has fight fans foaming at the mouth for the first bell to sound. [Click Here To Read More]
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