Antonio Tarver aiming to restore American presence in heavyweight division
Ahead of his 15 October comeback fight against Nagy Aguilera, American boxing veteran Antonio Tarver said his coming back to the sport and entry into the heavyweight division was a matter of restoring
American pride in the division.
In a conference call promoting the fight, he said “there is no American threat. So I want to give these guys a threat to their thrones. It will be about two or three fights where I can say that I'm a
serious threat to those guys. [...] And that's what I want to bring to the heavyweight boxing game before I retire. That's what it's all about. People wanting to see if I can do it. People wanting to see me get knocked out for destroying a great fighter in
Roy Jones Jr.”
Tarver, 42, won bronze at the 1996 Atlantic Olympics, and is credited as being the first fighter to beat Roy Jones Jr. (save for Montell Griffin by disqualification).
He added he’d like to get through Aguilera and then get matches with the Klitschkos or David Haye, the big shots of the division.
Going into the fight with fight with Aguilera, Tarver, a colourful Showtime boxing commentator, will hope to shake off a 17-month layoff and his last two bouts, which he lost to Chad Dawson by decision
in October 2008 and May 2009.
Despite his layoff, he’s made no special adjustments for Aguilera.
“I'm approaching this fight just like any other fight, and just like any other championship fight that I have been in. I'm not trying to get hit at all. But I'm not going to be running. I'm going to be
using my counter punching. I'm going to be using my defense. I'm going to be using my angles. And hopefully, I'm going to be walking him into everything that I throw and that I can walk him into.”
Tarver is well known and regarded as a commentator for Showtime, due to his animated speech and knowledge of the sport.
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