Bernard Hopkins vs. Antonio Tarver II

It was a rocky start, but he took over and should've taken it by a comfortable margin. The draw - like Bernstein's commentary - was too bounteous to Kayode, and Tarver should outclass him even more clearly in the rematch once his appeal goes through and the NC is changed back to a draw.

 

Nice shiny IBO CW belt? (chance to be "3 division champ"...)

 

As it happens, Bernard has in the past expressed a desire to pick up a strap at cruiser even if 'only' the IBO - and has singled out Tarver in particular as his ideal mark for the feat.


Both seemed keen on the idea in summer of 2011, shortly after Tarver vs. Green and Hopkins vs. Pascal II:


When 42-year-old Antonio Tarver stopped cruiserweight contender Danny Green in the ninth round on July 20 in Australia, it didn't take long for Bernard Hopkins to get wind of his old foe's accomplishment. This, even though Hopkins was on the other side of the world. "I was in Las Vegas for the Amir Khan-Zab Judah fight," said Hopkins, referring to the same night's fifth-round knockout by Khan over Judah. "As soon as I heard about it, yeah, it crossed my mind. I said, 'Yeah, I'll do it' when I found out that he won the championship."

"It" is a rematch of 40-plus-year-olds against Tarver, who picked up the IBO cruiserweight belt when he upset the heavily favored Green. Hopkins was the underdog when he faced Tarver in June of 2006. However, he floored Tarver once on the way to a one-sided unanimous decision in his light heavyweight debut.

Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 knockouts) has no problem giving Tarver a shot at redemption, but first the 46-year-old light heavyweight champ has an Oct. 15 defense of his RING and WBC belts against Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs), who has twice beaten Tarver (29-6, 20 KOs). Hopkins' game plan includes "cleaning up" the light heavyweight division before fighting IBF super middleweight beltholder Lucian Bute. He would then tackle a cruiserweight beltholder, he says, which includes Tarver, Marco Huck (WBO titleholder), Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (WBC) or Guillermo Jones, with an emphasis on Tarver.

"Absolutely, I would fight Tarver or anybody in the cruiserweight division except Steve Cunningham, because we share the same trainer and teacher and professor in Naazim Richardson," said Hopkins. "Tarver will be the person that I would go after as far as making history as a cruiserweight. That's to have another add-on to my belts and to have that shot at history. So yeah, I would definitely consider that. Very, very much so."

Tarver also welcomes the rematch, "I haven't had that chance to avenge that loss to Bernard Hopkins, but who knows what's in the cards for the future? I don't see nobody out there in the cruiserweight division beating me. I don't see Hopkins, I don't see none of those guys stepping up to me and doing anything. I'm ready for whoever."

In May, Hopkins dethroned Jean Pascal of Canada by unanimous decision, becoming the oldest fighter in the history of the sport to win a significant world title. Hopkins' triumph came when he was 192 days older than when 45-year-old George Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer in the 10th round on November 5, 1994, to become the eldest man to win a heavyweight crown. Hopkins-Pascal II was a rematch of December's disputed, majority draw that was contested during which Hopkins rose from a pair of knockdowns and seemingly out-boxed Pascal for what should have been declared a victory for him.

Tarver, meanwhile, stopped Green (31-4, 27 KOs) for the first time in the latter's career, ended his winning streak at 10 fights and simultaneously resurrecting his own career. Before facing Green, Tarver earned a unanimous decision over Nagy Aguilera in a heavyweight bout last October.

"Tarver went over to Australia and did the unthinkable, just like what I did with Jean Pascal," said Hopkins. "I can't take credit for the man's victory, but I think that Tarver is a man that if he was motivated by anything, that I know winning is one of the things that he likes to do, and that he was probably motivated by what I've done. I want to be the first middleweight to win a cruiserweight title. I don't think that has ever been done before."

Roy Jones failed to earn a cruiserweight belt when Green stopped him in the first round in late 2009. Jones had earned belts as a middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. Hopkins ran off a middleweight record 20 title defenses and has split victories with Jones, who is 1-2 against Tarver, having once been been stopped by Tarver in the second round. Tarver said Hopkins needs first to worry about Dawson.

"I think that it's a bad fight for Bernard. Chad is boxer, he can move, and he's got a little pop in his punches," said Tarver. "Chad has hand speed and he's mobile. I don't see how Bernard's going to be able to trap this kid and make him dance to his tune, so it will be an interesting fight."





...but they had cooled on it by the following January, prior to Hopkins vs. Dawson II and Tarver vs. Kayode: (with the only match for either in the interim being Hopkins' No Contest against Dawson in November)


"You said Antonio Tarver, who’s a bitter man, who I easily beat after being a six-to-one underdog and he lost a quarter million that day when he didn’t knock me out in four rounds. So he has a reason to be envious and biased towards me, but if you see me when I did that first Jean Pascal fight with Showtime, he wants to take pictures and hug at the media sit-down roundtable. ... [W]ith Antonio Tarver, it’s envy and jealousy. I’m still fighting. He’s known more for the Rocky movies than anything else, because the Roy Jones fight with the one punch—he was a one punch wonder! What did he do since then? Nothing! Think about it. No, don’t give me that crap about that guy down there in Australia! The Green Machine! Come on! That’s a joke. Are you kidding me? So let them guys do what they got to do. I guess he needs a buck. He wants me to fight him. He wants a rematch."

- Hopkins

"I read a bit of the interview and as always he's delusional about my accomplishments. I've given and shown Bernard all the credit and respect from a fighters stand point, but as a person I question why he continues to bring my name up in conversation. He says I'm [envious] and jealous of him and anyone who's ever met or known me knows that's impossible because there's never been a jealous bone in my body. I'm too busy loving me. About our fight, he shouldn't get the credit he gets. I took a long layoff, and lost 53 lbs in two months. And I still believe it's a good chance I was poisoned and I may never get the chance to prove it. So I'll charge that to the game, the rematch made sense years ago but I knew he would never fight me again. I lost to one person since Hopkins, the same man that would have surely beat his ass. Why would I want to fight a man that can't draw flies to a picnic? The worst pay-per-view in boxing was his."

- Tarver


We'll see if Bernard dignifies the call-out with a response, this time. :conf

 

Why not? He should be on a 3-0 streak (or worst case 2-0-1, as I highly doubt he was lying about the drostanolone and feel it was very likely a false positive - especially given that neither his physique nor abilities showed any signs of 'enhancement') that includes 2 guys then ranked in the top 10-15 at CW - and this after making an improbable jump from LHW all the way to HW to whoop a fringe contender who if nothing else packs a mean HW punch. All that after everybody had written him off completely.

I'd say he deserves a rematch more than Cloud but less than Pascal. (who has a date with Bute coming up - another name bandied about for Hopkins in the future, whose only accomplishment since moving up is playing hit-and-run against Grachev and who really needs to get in line behind Tarver unless he upsets Pascal impressively...)

 

:good

If Hopkins goes up to CW instead of Tarver coming down, you like the rematch more or less?

 

:roll: