Antonio Tarver

Antonio Tarver
Data
Birth Name	Antonio Deon Tarver
Fight name	Magic Man
Weight class	Light heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	November 21, 1968
place of birth	Orlando
style	Legal display
size	1.88 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	39
Victories	31
Knockout victories	22nd
Defeats	6th
draw	1
No value	1

Antonio Deon Tarver (born November 21, 1968 in Orlando , Florida ) is an American boxer who celebrated great success in the light heavyweight division. He became amateur world champion in 1995 and won the Olympic bronze medal in 1996. As a professional he is a former WBA super world champion , two-time IBF world champion and two-time WBC world champion .

amateur

His amateur record is 158 wins and 12 losses. In 1993 Tarver won the US light heavyweight championships. In 1994 he won the National Golden Gloves light heavyweight, and in 1995 again the US American light heavyweight championships. In addition, he won the 12th Pan American Games in Argentina in 1995 . He won against Óscar Amador, Dihosvany Vega, Gabriel Hernández and Thompson Garcia.

In May 1995 he became amateur world light heavyweight champion in Berlin . He won in the preliminary round against the Montenegrin Milorad Gajović , in the quarter-finals against the Italian Pietro Aurino , in the semifinals against Vasily Shirov from Kazakhstan and in the final again against Dihosvany Vega from Cuba.

At the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, he won the preliminary rounds against Dmitry Vybornov and David Kowah . By beating Enrique Flores in the quarterfinals, he moved into the semifinals, where he finally lost to Vasily Schirow just on points and won bronze.

professional

In 1997, Antonio Tarver turned professional. He won his first 16 fights in a row, 14 of which by knockout.

On June 23, 2000 he boxed in the Grand Casino of Biloxi (Mississippi) , in an IBF title elimination match, against the also undefeated southpaw Eric Harding . Tarver lost the fight well on points, went down on lap 11 and suffered a broken jaw. In his next fight on February 24, 2001, he defeated the unbeaten, powerful Lincoln Carter in Florida by technical knockout in round 5, whereupon the latter ended his career. On August 3 of the same year, he beat the North American champion Chris Johnson in the 10th round knockout, whereupon this also ended his career.

On January 25, 2002, he won on points against former world champion Reggie "Sweet" Johnson and was thereby North American and at the same time American champion. On July 20 of the same year, he faced Eric Harding again in a rematch and won by technical knockout in round 5.

After WBC and IBF world champion Roy Jones junior had moved up to the heavyweight division and threw down his two world championship belts, a fight between ex-world champion Montell Griffin and Antonio Tarver was agreed to determine a new double world champion. This fight, which took place on April 26, 2003, Tarver won unanimously on points.

Since Jones continued to be viewed as a true light heavyweight world champion because he had not lost his title in the ring, Tarver forced a fight with Jones to be recognized as the undisputed world champion in this weight class. This could be provoked and so it came on November 8, 2003 in Las Vegas to this prestige duel. Jones was known as the " pound-for-pound " (fighting strength in relation to weight) best boxer in the world at the time. He had won 48 of his 49 fights, 38 of which by knockout and had already won five championship belts in four weight classes. His only defeat was a disqualification for looking up against the already downed Montell Griffin, whom he then defeated in the rematch by knockout in the first round.

Jones, who after his foray into the heavyweight division no longer found his form in his traditional class, only narrowly and controversially won on points, so that a rematch was quickly scheduled.

In this encounter, which took place on May 15, 2004, Tarver surprisingly managed a knockout victory in the second round and thus winning the WBC and WBA titles.

In December 2004, however, Tarver's belts were stripped because he did not play against the associations' mandatory challengers, but instead preferred a fight against the Jamaican Glen Johnson . Tarver also lost the duel on points. But here too there was the direct rematch, in which Tarver was able to prevail again and won the IBO title. Then there was the third encounter with Jones, which he also won on points.

His next fight was on June 10, 2006 when he faced record world champion Bernard Hopkins . Tarver suffered a point defeat. After victories against Elvir Muriqi and Danny Santiago, he boxed on April 12, 2008 against IBF World Champion Clinton Woods and won the title by unanimous decision.

On October 11, 2008 he went to his first title defense against Chad Dawson . There he lost his title after a unanimous decision on points. In May 2009 there was a rematch against Dawson, which he clearly lost on points.

On July 20, 2011, he defeated Danny Green by technical knockout in round 9, causing him the first premature loss of his career and winning the IBO cruiserweight title. On June 2, 2012, he boxed in the cruiserweight division against the undefeated Lateef Kayode (18-0). The fight ended in a draw. The subsequent doping test was positive for drostanolone and he was banned for one year.

Others

In the spring of 2006 he played the role of world heavyweight champion "Mason Dixon" in the Stallone film Rocky Balboa .

Web links

• Antonio Tarver in the BoxRec database
• Antonio Tarver at the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Antonio Tarver's ban upheld ESPN on Oct. 9, 2012