Jirov-Toney and Tarver-Griffin Predictions

by Jim "Boxadamus" De Pierro

25.04 - It is not to often in boxing that a card will feature two highly competitive matchups where neither fighter is an overwhelming favorite to win the fight. Either one of these fights is worthy of being the main event but its the cruiserweight clash that is attracting the most attention largely due IMO to the forceful personality James "lights out" Toney who is vowing win in spectacular fashion. James Toney may no longer be considered among the top p4p fighers in the world but when it comes to talking trash about his opponents James Toney is still the king. Interestingly Montell Griffin, who is fighting on the undercard has beaten James Toney not once but twice albeit contraversially two times yet he is generating very little attention in the buildup to these two spectacular matchups. My predictions for both of these fights is quite simply put as TNT not only because I think both these matchups will be explosive but also because my money and mouth and mouth are on Toney and Tarver to win their respective matches.

Antonio Tarver 20-1 (17 KOs) vs. Montel Griffin 44-3 (28 KOs)

I must admit that for a long time I was not a believer in Antonio Tarver. I thought that Eric Harding exposed him in 2000 as yet another overhyped prospect with a glossy undefeated record. I never felt Tarver was bum because he gave it his all and fought through a broken jaw in his first fight with Eric Harding but I felt that he was lacking and at the age of 31 he was a little to old to really start turning himself into a top contender. Well time has proved me wrong and and Tarver has taken the hard road to glory. Tarver hasn't always looked spectacular since his sole loss to Eric Harding. Reggie Johnson dropped him on the seat of his pants and Harding looked well on to his way to beating Tarver even easier than he did the first time by dominating him for the first three rounds yet through it all Tarver has since compiled a record of 4-0 (3 KOs) in his last four fights against a combined record of 101-9-3 (63 KOs) while avenging his only defeat to Eric Harding in a devestating 5th round stoppage. Tarver, I believe is a better fighter as a result of losing to Harding.

Even though Griffin is the only man to hold any sort of win over Roy Jones it is Antonio Tarver who I think best personify's many boxing fans disgust with RJJ. I don't think Tarver has more than an outside chance of beating Roy Jones but if their is one light-heavyweight I would like to see RJJ fight it would be Antonio Tarver even more so than Darius Michaelczewski.

Montell Griffin brings a lot of experience to the table and has been in with some of the top names of the light heavyweight division including Roy Jones jr. , James Toney, Eric Harding and Darius Michaelczewski. Griffin in his last outing against George Khalid Jones didn't impress me to much. It looked to me that Jones was beggiing to figure out how to fight Griffin but he ran out of rounds to catch up. Against Derrick Harmon Griffin looked spectacular but I never thought to highly of Derrick Harmon as a fighter in the first place. I never saw Griffin fight Michaelczewski but I have heard conflicting reports on the nature of the stoppage as far as whether it was just or not. From what I was told though Griffin was winning at the time he was stopped by Michaelczewski for what its worth.

I think the first four rounds or so will be explosive. It is no secret that the taller fighter will (Tarver) will enjoy the most sucess from the outsided while Griffin's gameplan should be to get in close where Tarver's lanky arms will not be to his advantage. As the fight wheres on I expect Griffin to gradually go into a more defensive shell before the referee stops the fight. At the time of stoppage Tarver will have gone through a few rough spots but will be comfortably ahead by about eight rounds to Griffin's three. The fight will be stopped after Griffin goes down for the second time.

Antonio Tarver TKO 11 over Montel Griffin

Vasili Jirov 31-0 (27 KOs) vs. James Toney 65-4-2 (42 KOs)

The cruiserweight division has long been considered the vast wasteland of boxing. Cruiserweight fights often have the slow plodding nature of the heavyweights but without the starpower and dollars of the heavyweights many fighters as RJJ is a typical example of choose to bypass the division entirely. On the rare occasion a talent does emerge from the cruiserweight ranks it is only a matter of time before that fighter goes to the heavyweights to seek their glory as Evander Holyfield and Juan Carlos Gomez have done. The cruiserweight division is really the only division where fighters like Fabrice Tiozzo or Immamu Mayfield get belts because of the utter lack of talent. The only fighters at cruiserweight that really impress me at the moment are Toney, Jirov and to a lesser extent Wayne Braithwaite and O'Niel Bell. Everyonelse at cruiserweight is garbage as far as I am concerned. Looking at common opponents it is a pretty mixed bag. Toney has had greater success against Adolpho Washington and Saul Montana than Jirov. Jirov for his part has faired better against Terry McGroom

A good case can be made for either man but I like Toney win this fight. The knock on Toney is that he is talented but lacks motivation and is often grossly overweight. A large part of that criticism is valid and Toney has through the years bloated himself from being a middleweight to a cruiserweight. Toney's body fat hasn't really been that in recent years which leads me to believe that he has grown and added enough muscle to the point where he is a natural cruiserweight. I think for this fight were going to see a very fit, focused and determined James Toney. Maybe I have fallen for Toney's trash talking but I think Toney will for the most part do what he says he is going to do.

Generally when fighters move up in weight divisions they tend to get less knockouts because their opponents are bigger and can take better punches but Toney's punching power as is evident by his recent KOs seems to be largely unaffected by his climb into boxing's higher weight classes. In his last ten fights where all of Toney's opponents have been cruiserweights and borderline heavyweights Toney has 7 KOs. Toney's KO percentage has been by and large very consistant regardless of what weight divisoin he is in.

Jirov has a pretty solid jaw as is evident by some hard shots that he took from Julian Letterlough and Jorge Castro. Castro and Letterlough were both able to stun Jirov briefly IMO and had him in some degree of trouble in isolated portions of the their fights with Jirov. I don't think Toney necesarily hits harder than either of those guys but I think Toney would be better able close the show had he been in Castro or Letterlough's place. The only real advantage I see for Jirov is his superior body punching and possibly better jaw. Jirov to the best of my knowledge has never been down and the sme can't be said of Toney.

This fight is aptly called seeing is believing and given how many times this fight has been cancelled for one reason or another I won't believe this fight until I do see it. Jirov's lack of activity is going to cost him. My prediction is that Toney is going to systematically disect Jirov. I see Toney hurting Jirov with a countershot at which point Toney will go in for the kill. Jirov will be looking to hurt Toney to the body and applying constant pressure on Toney. It won't work like Jirov will hope it will because I see Toney slipping and turning into Jirovs punches. Jirov will win maybe two rounds in the course of the fight.

James Toney KO 9 over Vasili Jirov

* * * Bonus Prediction * * *

A minor upset will occur on FNF when Verno Phillips will beat Bronco Mckart and surprisingly easily to.

Agree? Disagree? Think I'm full of it? E-mail me at boxadamus@surfglobal.net and tell me what you think or post a comment.