Antonio Tarver makes his heavyweight debut against Nagy Aguilera on 10/15

By Matt Stein: Former IBF/WBA/WBC light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver (27-6, 19 KO’s) moves up to the heavyweight division next month on October 15th to take on the hard hitting Nagy Aguilera (16-4, 11 KO’s) at the Buffalo Run Casino, in Miami, Florida. Tarver, 41, is hoping to find the same kind of success that former light heavyweight champion Tomasz Adamek has found thus far in his move up to the heavyweight division.

However, Adamek has a big advantage over Tarver in that Adamek was a big puncher and light heavyweight and continued to show big power when he moved up to cruiserweight. For his part, Tarver has decide to skip the cruiserweight division altogether and just move up straight to the heavyweight level in hopes of getting a big money heavyweight title shot in the near future.

Since Tarver wasn’t a huge puncher at light heavyweight, it’s doubtful that any of the power that he did have at light heavyweight, will come up with him in moving up in weight. Tarver turns 42 in November, and he can’t afford to take his time and work his way up to a heavyweight title shot. Tarver is going to have to fight often and look impressive.

If he can just knock off one fringe contender at heavyweight, that may be enough for him to get a fight against either Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko. Tarver might be able to mimic the same results as Adamek if he were to face fighters like Chris Arreola, Michael Grant and Jason Estrada, but I have my doubts that he could beat any of them.

Tarver looks too slender and weak to beat a good heavyweight, and I think fringe heavyweight contenders like Arreola and Estrada would give Tarver a lot of problems. Grant might beat Tarver on size alone.

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