By Jim Dower: Former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver will be moving up in weight to the heavyweight division on October 15th to take on Nagy Aguilera on Friday, Oct. 15, at Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma. Although Tarver isn’t facing a dangerous opponent in Aguilera, the fight will still be shown on Showtime, where Tarver works as one of the television analysts. Tarver, 41, is moving up to the heavyweight division to try and win a world title against one of the Klitschko brothers.

In a conference call today, Tarver said “I see myself knocking out of these giants,” referring to one of the Klitschko brothers. “Now I just have to have the world see it. That’s my dream and that’s my goal and I’m sticking to it until someone beats me.” It’s hard to take Tarver seriously, because he skipped the cruiserweight division altogether and seems to be looking to get a big payday against one of the Klitschkos.

As a light heavyweight, Tarver wasn’t a huge puncher and often looked like a tall string bean. He says he walks round at 225 and has had to strip off a lot of weight each time to get down to the 175 pound limit. Tarver plans on fighting at 217 against Aguilera, but it’s hard to see Tarver having any luck against either of the Klitschko brothers being only 217. He’s no Mike Tyson, so it’s likely going to be a huge liability for him to be facing one of the Klitchkos at such a light weight. Of course, that’s if Tarver can even get by Aguilera.

Tarver is 41, and has lost two out of his last three fights at light heavyweight. Even if Tarver does beat Aguilera, he’s going to have to have one of the Klitschko brothers take a quick interest in fighting him before he ages even more. Unless Tarver picks up a few credible wins, a fight between him and one of the Klitschko brothers would largely look like a big joke. However, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko is reportedly interested in possibly fighting Tarver next year. Klitschko doesn’t have a lot of big named opponents to fight in the division, and Tarver may be the best that Klitschko can do under the circumstances unless WBA heavyweight champion David Haye finally decides to fight him.

Tarver says “I just need about two or three fights to show I’m a real threat. You just look at the name – if it’s Tarver-Klitschko or Tarver-Haye, that’s a big name, that’s big business.” I’m not sure if Tarver is as big a name as he seems to think he is. I’ve never seen Tarver as a pay per view star or something that you just had to watch. This is why it seems very hard to imagine him getting a shot at one of the Klitschkos or David Haye, and people being excited about it.

If anything, I cans see boxing fans being upset and feeling tricked, because it would seem like Klitschko or Haye are cherry picking opponents rather than fighting the best guys. We already have Haye fighting 38-year-old Audley Harrison and Vitali Klitschko fighting 38-year-old Shannon Briggs. Vitali just finished fighting an easy defense against European Alberto Sosnowski, and that fight was a mismatch.