I was watching this fight again. Near the end Tarver was flipping pissed off that the ref wouldn't stop the fight. After the 2nd KD the ref asked Harding "are you alright?" To which Harding replied "I'm from Philadelphia." I was impressed with his toughness but Tarver broke him down with chopping left hands. This fight was just the prefight for the winner to get Roy Jones junior next. But what happened after this fight cemented Antonio tarvers legacy, and sullied rjjs career significance) greatness. Do you think the rep where a guy is from should predetermine how much punishment he could take? Imagine hypothetically Tyson fury says "I'm from kronk" do you look past that and give him more time to recover? Or do you wave it off out of mercy?
I guess what I'm asking is "what is the criteria to stop a prize fight"? Iyo. I noticed deontay was waved off so no he didn't get his chance to continue even though he was still trying to get back up in fury 3. I still think he went out on his shield though.
The stoppage was awful. Keep in mind that Tarver had sent Chris Johnson out on a stretcher a couple years earlier and ended his career. Harding was never the same after. He was a really good fighter until that point.
