Light heavyweight International Boxing Organization champion Antonio Tarver (25-4, 18 KOs) defends his little known title against Danny Santiago (29-3-1, 19 KOs) on Saturday night at the Foxwoods Casino, in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Tarver, 39, is still trying to rebuild his career after suffering a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in June 2006. Though Tarver only lost his IBO light heavyweight title at the time, the damage to his career was much worse because Hopkins was moving up in weight to challenge Tarver.
At 39, Tarver is no longer considered the best light heavyweight in the division. That title rests with either Chad Dawson or Bernard Hopkins. Though, personally, I think Dawson would be too much for the 42 year-old Hopkins at this stage of his career, but it’s doubtful we’ll ever know for sure because Hopkins would never likely take on Dawson, for whatever reason. Tarver is coming off an unimpressive majority decision over Elvir Muriqi in June, a fight in which Tarver appeared to lose by at least two rounds on my scorecard.
Now, judging from the way that Tarver looked against Muriqi, he no longer appears to be able to throw punches in combinations, instead mainly pot shotting or throwing a rare jab. In contrast to his his form in early 2000, it looks like two completely different fighters. Perhaps it’s the time that Tarver took off to shoot the film Rocky Balboa, with Sylvester Stallone. Whatever it is, Tarver looks nothing like the fighter that stopped Roy Jones Jr. with one brutal left hand in the 2nd round of their bout in May 2005.
Tarver’s time at the top would be short, as he would immediately lose his titles to Glen Johnson seven months later, in December 2004. Though Tarver avenged his defeat to Johnson, taking back his IBO title, along with another win over Jones Jr., he would lose to Bernard Hopkins in 2006.
Santiago, 34, has a record even better than Tarver, but mainly built on beating fluff fighters. As things stand, Santiago has little chance of beating Tarver. However, many people said the same thing of Muriqi, and look how close he to defeating Tarver. At Tarver’s advanced age, nothing is a given anymore. Still, if he can avoid facing the top fighters in the light heavyweight division, such as Dawson, Erdei, Drew, Woods, Johnson and Adamek, he should be able to hold onto his little known IBO title for a little while longer.