By James Slater: With Australia’s Danny Green having moved on to a shot at the WBC cruiserweight title, the man who revived his own career by stopping Green recently, Antonio Tarver, is looking for someone else to rumble with – and you’ll never guess who “The Magic Man” has called out! Joe Calzaghe!
According to a news article in The South Wales Argos, 42-year-old Tarver has laid down a challenge to the retired “Pride of Wales” – to make a return to the ring and face the only man he ever avoided.
Of course, there is next to no chance of 39-year-old Joe being even remotely tempted by Tarver’s offer, but the verbal exchanges the two have had are amusing.
“I was the only one that could beat him, that’s why he avoided me,” Tarver said of Calzaghe. “He got dropped by Roy [Jones] and [Bernard] Hopkins, I would’ve knocked out feather-punching Calzaghe. He couldn’t beat me period and I hate I didn’t get a chance to prove it.”
Amazingly, Calzaghe took the time to respond to Tarver’s desperate-sounding trash-talk:
“I love how fighters are calling me out three years after I quit,” Joe said. “ I get it, it’s all about money and a payday. In your dreams, Antonio; didn’t you get destroyed by Hopkins before I beat him?”
It’s true that Calzaghe, who quit with a perfect 46-0(32) record, beat a Hopkins who had previously outclassed Tarver, and though “B-Hop” did indeed deck Calzaghe, he got back up to win a close decision. Why is Tarver bringing up the past anyway? Back in the mid-2000s, a fight between he and fellow southpaw Calzaghe would have been interesting, but no way is Joe coming back now – even though his father and former trainer says he could do so quite easily.
“Joe can still go and even after not fighting for three years he would have way too much for Tarver,” Enzo Calzaghe said. “But what would it prove? People need to move on because Joe certainly has.”
Indeed. Tarver should be looking at his next realistic opponent. However, if he is intent on facing a fellow veteran, he should look at the possibility of fighting James Toney next (if “Lights Out” can get past Denis Lebedev in November). Why is Tarver opting to waste what time he has left calling for fights that will never happen?