He lost 30 fights. He lost the great majority of his big fights. Tarver was the man at 175 for a period and did the impossible to Jones. He was among the best US ams ever. Harding, Griffin, Reggie and Glen were talented but tihings do not work the same with schedules today.
Lol most of those “30” losses came at the end of his career and if Tarver fought Charles Walcott Archie Moore in their primes he would have lost too.
He had 18 loses and 4 draws when he fought Robinson, which is basically the pinnacle of his career. Tarver had financial incentive to be the top am in the world and, as a result, get paid right of the gate as a pro. I’m almost 100% sure that Tarver would turn in better results than Maxim if he’d gone the 1950s route and that Maxim would struggle doing the world am circuit and then turning in the same or better results as Tarver in the pros.
It’s his most famous win but doesn’t register in his top five. Tarver fought about half the fights he did can’t see Tarver doing as well. Agree to disagreeS
I have Tarver via a fairly wide decision. Both guys were tough as nails but I think Tarver was better defensively and held a stylistic advantage over Joey. He simply was a more complete guy and another factor is that Joey never faced a southpaw even remotely as dangerous as Tarver. The best southpaw was a shop worn Bob Murphy. I have to think that Joey would have trouble landing that excellent jab of his against a guy as well schooled and seasoned as Tarver. Tarver knew how to take that punch away from a conventional fighter.
I guess you are not counting Tarver's very long and decorated amauter career where he won multiple tournaments including gold at the world's, Pan American games, National Golden Gloves and Olympic Bronze which very easily could have been gold. The guy competed against some very stacked Eastern European and Cuban Cuban amauter programs. Tarver was an incredibly seasoned guy. Maxim was nothing that he hadn't seen before.
