By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Emanuel Steward says his fighter IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (56-3, 49 KO’s) is interested in fighting 42-year-old cruiserweight Antonio Tarver (29-6, 20 KO’s) and heavyweight contender Chris Arreola (33-2, 28 KO’s) in 2012.
The Arreola fight is slightly interesting because Arreola has been looking a little better since he took off 20 pounds of fat. But the Tarver fight is just as awful as Wladimir’s December 10th fight against an overmatched 39-year-old Jean Marco Mormeck.
That bout promises to be over quickly, Steward believes. Wladimir wants to take on the best contenders in the division such as Robert Helenius and Tyson Fury, to name just a couple, but neither of them are interested in testing themselves against the 35-year-old Wladimir.
It could be that they’re waiting for him to age enough to where they’ll have a chance. Right now Fury and Helenius would be more of the typical cannon fodder that Wladimir has been mowing down as of late.
Tarver is coming off of an impressive 9th round stoppage of IBF cruiserweight champion Danny Green last July. However, there is a huge difference from fighting the 6’1” Green and the 6’6” Wladimir.
Tarver was even shaken at one point by some of Green’s shots. You can only imagine what a puncher like Wladimir would do to Tarver if given the chance.
Tarver looked mediocre recently when he moved up to the heavyweight division and defeated Nagy Aguilera by a 10 round decision last year in October.
Although Tarver won the fight, he was fat 22lbs. Tarver can bulk up for a fight against Wladimir, to be sure, but it would mainly flab and he would be facing a solid 245 pound Wladimir. It would be a horrible mismatch and I think Wladimir would receive a lot of criticism for making the fight given his fight against another old guy Mormeck.
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