By Jason Kim: 41-year-old former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver (27-6, 19 KO’s) will be moving up all the way to the heavyweight division on Friday night to take on the hard hitting but very limited Nagy Aguilera (16-4, 11 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Buffalo Run Casino, Miami, Oklahoma.
The fight will be televised on Showtime, which is where Tarver works as an analyst. If Tarver fails in this fight, he’ll have his co-workers to analyze his loss and that could make this fight somewhat interesting to watch. Tarver has looked shot lately, losing his last two fights to Chad Dawson.

Aguilera, 24, hasn’t been much better, as he’s lost three out of his last six fights and looked mediocre. This is probably why he’s been chosen by Tarver, because it’s highly doubtful that Tarver could beat a good heavyweight. He’s been fighting at 175, but he now will be weighing 225 for this fight.

You have to figure that some of that extra weight will be in the form of fat. Tarver, a southpaw, was never fast to begin with and he’s likely going to be even slower now that he’s fighting at heavyweight.

He hasn’t been a big puncher at light heavyweight, and he’s probably not going to be hitting any harder at heavyweight. This fight will likely go the full 10 rounds with Tarver winning a dull 10 round decision over the slow Aguilera.

Tarver will be turning 42 next month, and it’s been two years since Tarver last won a fight, beating then IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods by a 12 round decision. It’s hard to believe that was two years ago, and Tarver hasn’t gotten any better since that fight.

If anything, his two losses to Dawson suggest that he’s getting worse and getting older. At 42, Tarver is going to need one of the heavyweight champions to show some interest in fighting him without having to earn a shot the hard way.

If Tarver were to have to work his way to a title shot by beating some of the top heavyweight contenders, he probably wouldn’t make it due to his lack of size, power and because of his advanced age.

However, the heavyweight division is horrible right now and there just isn’t any big named fighters for the Klitschkos to fight. One of them will likely choose Tarver just because of his name recognition rather than him having any ability to compete in the heavyweight division.