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 NEW VIDEO Antonio Tarver
Straight from Vero Beach Florida, MaxBoxing's Johnnie Whitehead goes one on one with Antonio Tarver in a lengthy interview, who fights Montel Griffin this weekend on HBO.
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Tarver Time
By Steve Kim (April 25, 2003)
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This Saturday night is do-or-die for Antonio Tarver, who faces the respected Montel Griffin for both the IBF and WBC light heavyweight titles.
A win and he's in business as a big-time player with plenty of lucrative bouts to look forward to. With a loss, he's just another 175-pounder who has to go all the way to the back to the end of line. Tarver is well aware of this.
"I think every fight is the biggest fight of my career," Tarver, who hails from Tampa, Florida, told MaxBoxing. "We're not in a position to afford a loss under any circumstance. Basically, every fight is for the championship because I want to remain on top and continue to perform to the best of my ability, so you know I just can't see myself going back.
"So it is added pressure somewhat, but at the same time, I know every fight is a big fight for me and I have to take it that way."
Tarver has done an impressive job of putting back the pieces of what was becoming a very disappointing professional career after his decisive 12-round loss to Eric Harding in June of 2000. In losing the IBF eliminator, Tarver would lose out on a shot against Roy Jones.
However, from that abyss, he has reeled off four impressive victories over four highly ranked opponents: Lincoln Carter (TKO 5), Chris Johnson (KO 10), Reggie Johnson (W 12) and Harding (TKO 5, in a rematch last July). With his impressive run he has gained acclaim as 'the undisputed light heavyweight challenger of the world'. In fact, he's rated number one by the IBF, WBC and WBA. This is no Morrade Hakkar.
But don't expect him to look past Griffin on his way to bigger and better things. That lesson was learned in his first only professional loss. He's come too far to fumble at the goal line, again.
"That's how I feel. Any loss on my record right now before I accomplish the things I set out to accomplish in this game would be detrimental. I learned that lesson from Eric Harding, trust me," he says, with a laugh. "I had to learn that lesson the hard way. We came back, fortunately, and we gained a victory back over him in spectacular fashion and I'm not trying to go through those steps anymore.
"I feel right now I can taste the top -- a win over Montell Griffin puts me on top as the light heavyweight champion and I want to remain there on top.
"So I'm a consummate pro right now when it comes to my career. I don't take any shortcuts. I train harder than any fighter in the world today. And the people will see the best Antonio Tarver on the 26th, yet. I've only scratched the surface of my talents and abilities. So we're going to show and demonstrate just what we're made off on the 26th."
Now, if you get the sense that Tarver is one of the sports best talkers -- you're absolutely correct. He is as well-spoken and articulate as they come but he got a little bit down and dirty when he confronted Roy Jones at the post-fight press conference after Jones' win over John Ruiz on March 1st at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. Tarver was in town to not only check out the fight but to attend a media get-together that was thrown by his promoter Lou DiBella. Tarver, you could say, crashed Jones' party.
He not only got his attention by openly challenging Jones and accusing him of ducking him, he got Jones upset and angry. It may have been the toughest battle that Jones had on that night. But Tarver says that he didn't intend to be such a rude guest.
"No, y'know what? It wasn't planned but I was compelled to do something, to say something," he claimed. "It was boiling inside of me. In the past I had gone to some of Roy Jones post-fight interviews and I just got tired of him talking smack on the podium and trying to convince everybody in the audience that he's the best thing since sliced bread.
"So I was just compelled to step up and finally be heard and what greater time than with the whole boxing media and world being there and I definitely got the response I was looking for."
Of course some accused him of some shameless self-promoting, which of course it was. And he got exactly what he wanted out of it.
"It helped a lot because like I said and I had been unfortunate not to have a promoter that really, really pushed me and promoted me in such a light where I'm out to the mass media, the mass market of boxing fans and purists alike. So it was an opportunity for me to introduce myself, so to speak and also challenge what some people consider the best 'pound-for-pound' fighter in the world and obviously my challenge went unheard and fell on deaf ears. I felt I was deserving of that fight prior to Ruiz even stepping in the ring with him.
"And it's documented. Roy Jones has ducked me for the last three years and it's unfortunate that we won't be able to bring that super-fight to Florida and to the boxing world no time soon because it seems like this guy has another agenda but I'm gonna continue my winning ways and to show the world they slept on Antonio Tarver for far too long and it's time for me to be recognized, not only as a great light heavyweight but as one of the premiere fighters 'pound-for-pound' today."
And with a win over Griffin, he would have two major championship belts and a bright future ahead of him.
"I think there are some big opportunities for him," said DiBella. "I think there are possibilities in a lot of different places from guys like Bernard Hopkins, to guys like the Jirov-Toney winner, to possibly a shot at Roy Jones down the line -- even at heavyweight. I doubt Roy's ever coming back down again and fighting Tarver at light heavyweight. But if Tarver can establish himself at light heavyweight maybe he can take a crack at Roy at heavy. And also there's Dariusz Michalczewski and honestly, if Tarver can beat Griffin, he has an excellent shot against Michalczewski."
But first things first, Tarver has to take care of business against Griffin.
"I can't underestimate Montell," he says. "He has a history and pedigree of success that I can't overlook. I'm at a point where I'm able to achieve one of my goals I set out, long, long time ago and I'm just ecstatic about finally getting the opportunity."
UNIFIED
In the beginning of the week, it looked like Tarver and Griffin were only going to duke it out for the vacant IBF title and not the vacant WBC belt-despite the fact that Tarver and Griffin were rated number one and two by the WBC.
The WBC belt had become vacant after Roy Jones dropped the title after winning the WBA heavyweight crown from John Ruiz. But after some heated discussions, the WBC changed it's mind on the matter.
"We talked to them and for a change, it worked," said DiBella. "I give a lot of credit to Tarver's management team because they put a lot of pressure on the WBC.
But I had spoken to Jose and Mauricio Sulaiman and they said that they we're going to reconsider and I was actually surprised to get the notification that they were going to sanction it.
"It's the right thing and they did the right thing and when they do the right thing, I'm going to commend them," DiBella said.
Who knows? In the wake of current events involving the organization, maybe they had no choice but to sanction Tarver-Griffin.
"The only thing I can say is that at the end of the day, I think the WBC realized that Antonio Tarver has really earned his position as the number contender, that he was a valuable fighter to them because he was the only fighter in the division that had a contract where he was going to fight on HBO," explained Tarver's lawyer, Charles Muniz, who was aided on this subject by John Hornewer. "And I think that we helped them realize, he, more so than any other fighter, earned the right to fight for that title.
"And when all was said and done, I think that we were able to convince them that this was the right thing to do because short of doing that -- getting into litigation -- I think would've made things that much worse than it currently is for them. I give Jose Sulaiman a lot of credit for basically rationalizing and thinking this thing through and seeing that the reasons they were putting out were just not going to cut it."
And who says that these title belts are meaningless?
BUDDY SYSTEM
Buddy McGirt, who will be in Tarver's corner on Saturday night, was in Los Angeles on Tuesday for Fernando Vargas' press conference. It looks like McGirt has been hired as an extra set of eyes for Vargas to work alongside Eduardo Garcia. I'm just wondering, is there anybody out there, not being trained by McGirt? I fully expect to see a fight where McGirt will work both corners at once. At what point does he spread himself too thin?
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E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
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