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ANTONIO TARVER: "ONE MORE CRUISERWEIGHT FIGHT AND THEN...SHOCK THE WORLD ONE MORE TIME"

By Percy Crawford | December 12, 2011
ANTONIO TARVER:

"If all goes well, man, next year could be my final hurrah. I just wanna go out on top and make it a helluva year, you know...If things happen early in the year, we can win a cruiserweight fight, win the heavyweight championship, and then have one defense, a mega, mega-fight, and then win, lose or draw, man, I'm out, you know what I mean? I could say I have done everything that I wanted to do...I want one more cruiserweight fight and then I want to take those cruiserweight titles up to the heavyweight division and shock the world one more time," stated former light heavyweight champion and cuurrent IBO cruiserweight champion Antonio Tarver, who has big plans to shock the world one more time before hanging up the gloves after 2012. Check out what he had to say about his future plans and much more!

PC: "Magic Man" what's good man?

AT: I'm doing good, man. We back in the lab.

PC: Back in the lab and heading into a new year, what can we expect from you Champ?

AT: You know, the same ol' Magic Man. I'm just real disappointed and taken back by the fact that I have been off the radar after that great win that I had. Seems like we couldn't put nothing together by this year's end and I'm kinda disappointed, but it just motivates me to go into 2012 with a clean and fresh start, and hopefully get out the gate early so we can have a fight first quarter, mid-quarter, and then by the end of the year, if all goes well, man, next year could be my final hurrah. I just wanna go out on top and make it a helluva year, you know?

PC: For sure, man. And as disappointing as that is to hear for me and all of your fans, you gotta respect a guy that has a plan and you seem to really have the end of your career mapped out.

AT: Well, you know, my whole thing is I never compare myself to the next man or speak on another man's situation, I just feel like I'm 3 fights away, if it all falls into place for me, to ride off in the sunset. If things happen early in the year, we can win a cruiserweight fight, win the heavyweight championship, and then have one defense, a mega, mega-fight, and then win, lose or draw, man, I'm out, you know what I mean? I could say I have done everything that I wanted to do, and that's what we plan on doing. If all of the chips fall where they may, then that's the plan and that's the way I got it mapped out.

PC: Nothing wrong with that, man. When you look at what you were able to do against Roy Jones and Danny Green, those guys weren't the same after they fought you. Do you think that's why some of these veterans are unwilling to face you at this stage in your career?

AT: I mean, I think right now they are reluctant because it's all risk and no reward. Take a guy like David Haye for instance. Why would he fight me when there is a good chance he is going to lose and a good chance he's going to be exposed? He would rather fight the Klitschkos, make a boatload of money, and win, lose or draw, who cares? He laughs all the way to the bank. But with me, it's going to be a setback and one that he may never recover from, so I understand. It's kind of disheartening, but I understand. But even when you look at the Danny Green situation, when have you ever seen somebody get knocked out and then his next fight is for a championship? Could you ever see that happening to me? No! There are a whole lot of fighters who you would never see that happen to, but this guy was back in the ring before me. I had to sit on the sideline and wait for the smoke to clear. That just goes to show that there is a helluva lot of respect they give me. Ain't no way in the world...and I told the world, ain't no way in the world Danny Green would be that silly twice. He made a mistake fighting me in the first place. We had scheduled the fight 3 times and it never went through and then he lied to everybody saying it was my fault that the fight didn't go through. We had his name on a contract and he backed out. Everything you heard about the rematch was all hype. I told him let's do it. He lied and backed out of the fight, you know what I mean? I don't have nothing to hide. I'm a fighter and I feel that on any given day, I can beat anybody in the world and that's from the Klitschkos on down. The stuff they were saying just didn't make no sense, man, but guess what? It washed out in the end. Everybody saw in the end what it was.

PC: Yeah, Danny definitely paid for trying to take the easy route.

AT: He could have made more money fighting me, but what? He could have gotten beat again and maybe knocked out sooner and that was going to be it. So he felt he would fight a lesser-known opponent, a lesser threat, try to get a belt, and then come back to the negotiating table with me. But I knew that Danny Green was not going to be the same type of fighter. Why? Because his will was broken in our fight. I embarrassed him in front of his hometown and I did everything that I said I was going to do and how I said I was going to do it. Go back and listen to some of my interviews. I told you how that fight was going to go. They made a big fuss about the gloves. My last statement to them was this, we argued and fought about those gloves for 40 minutes and I almost pulled out of the fight. Ask anybody. I said no because the gloves were tampered with. Those Grant Gloves, [Elvis] Grant told me himself if the logo is not on the gloves, they have been tampered with. You cannot tamper with any gloves. You can't change or alter any boxing gloves, that's why they come in a pack. That's why they come in a package and if that package is open, those gloves are no longer usable. You can't get away with that. But we argued like you wouldn't even believe. I walked out twice. I walked away from the fight. But you know what? I looked at his gloves and I looked at my gloves and I said, "You know what? It don't matter what he's wearing, he's not gonna hit me no way. Let's fight." That was my last statement to them. He didn't touch me all night. He got one shot off and that's it. The difference between my fight with Danny Green and the guy he just fought is he was winning that fight. Now them boys [Krzysztof Wlodarczyk] talking about they wanna fight me. They don't wanna fight me. Let's see how long it takes them to negotiate a deal. I'm ready. They don't wanna fight me. Put the belt on the line. And you know I will travel, so it don't make no difference (laughing). My bag stay packed and my passport stay ready, you know what I mean (laughing)?

PC: (Laughing) I feel you.

AT: I want one more cruiserweight fight. I'm knocking every cruiserweight I fight out that I face, no matter who it is. Every cruiserweight that I face at 200 pounds cannot stand up to my power; point blank, period. They getting knocked out. And then I wanna force either Klitschko or Povetkin to fight me and then defend the title. There ain't a bigger name in the division at heavyweight. They done fought everybody there is to fight. Fight somebody new.

PC: Yeah, no more recycled heavyweight fights because they weren't that good the first time to be honest.

AT: Yeah, stop fighting these same mandatories. No, fight somebody that you haven't beat yet. Fight somebody who's boxing IQ is off the charts. Fight someone whose defense is so superior to these guys, especially to these big, slow, and plodding heavyweights. They couldn't hit me if I had my hands behind my back, so I ain't worried about it. But it's all risk and no reward when it comes to me. That's what the problem is.

PC: I know you gotta get going, but before you go, I gotta ask you about Denis Lebedev. He seems to be trying to stack legends on his resume. He already has two future Hall of Famers on his ledger. Is that a fight you would entertain?

AT: A fight like that, this guy is an interim champion and that's the problem we have here. That's number one. He is an interim champion, so beating him is not even going to get me a championship. If I'm going to fight a cruiserweight, it's going to be to unify the title. That's what it is and that's what I want. Now, they can make it worth my time. But you know what? They have been real quiet lately. They haven't been calling my name out. It ain't like they been hollering about nothing, you know what I mean? His people wanted to promote the fact that I was gonna be ringside when they knew I was going to be working in America with Showtime. They wanted to try and use my name to build up a situation, but they been real quiet lately. We not running from them either. If they thinking that it's going to be a James Toney or Roy Jones that show up, they got another thing coming. My whole thing is this man, 2012 is gonna be my year and I'm gonna stamp it, and that's what it is, but, you know, I'm ready to do it. It don't matter. I want one more cruiserweight fight and then I want to take those cruiserweight titles up to the heavyweight division and shock the world one more time.

PC: Best of luck with all of that my man. When you're in rare form like this, I need more than 10 minutes with you, man. I know you gotta get going though.

AT: Alright, that's wassup man, and let the people know I'm on Facebook and Twitter, @AntonioTarver, so they can follow me.

PC: Yeah, we gotta get the fans following you man because you have me cracking up on Twitter.

AT: (Laughing)

PC: What you said...if you got your shirt off with both hands behind your head in a mirror, don't expect a follow back, huh (laughing)?

AT: That shit crazy right there, man (laughing). What part of the game is that, man? That shit suspect. It ain't even suspect no more man, it's all the way live (laughing).



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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