By Dan Ambrose: 43-year-old Antonio Tarver (29-6, 20 KO’s) is still holding out hope that IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko will decide to fight him in 2012, and Tarver thinks he can knock Wladimir out. What’s even more laughable than that is Tarver believes that HBO and Showtime would be interested in seeing him fight Wladimir.

Tarver said to eastsideboxing.com’s On The Ropes Boxing Radio Program “I shocked the world when I knocked out Roy Jones, and if I get a chance to get Wladimir Klitschko in the ring, I’ll do the same thing…I think both of the networks would be interested in it.”

Tarver has fought only once at heavyweight beating fringe heavyweight Nagy Aguilera last year by a 10 round unanimous decision last year in November 2010. Tarver weighed a fat 221lbs for that fight, but didn’t look particularly powerful or muscular carrying around the extra weight.

Tarver figures he could get up to a solid 215lbs for a fight against the 245lb Wladimir, but Tarver would still be giving away 30 pounds in weight, and quite a big in the power department. At 6’2”, Tarver wouldn’t even have his height as an asset for him. At light heavyweight, Tarver was always considered tall for the division, but he would be small for a fight against Wladimir and not mention old as well. It’s hard to take this fight seriously.

Tarver points out that he stopped 38-year-old IBO cruiserweight champion Danny Green last July, and feels he ruined Green after that fight. Tarver says he’d carry that power up to heavyweight. However, he didn’t look powerful in his fight against Aguilera last year, and it’s hard to imagine that Tarver would be any more powerful a year and a half later.

Wladimir is already scheduled to take on small former cruiserweight champion 39-year-old Jean Marc Mormeck next year in March in a fight that is considered a mismatch. But if Wladimir follows that mismatch with another older, smaller fighter like Tarver, it’s going to give the impression that Wladimir is just trying to milk his titles rather than taking on credible contenders.

If Tarver is really serious about wanting to fight Wladimir, then he needs to move up in weight and knock off a couple of contenders like Eddie Chambers and Denis Boytsov. If he can beat both of those guys then I wouldn’t mind seeing Wladimir waste time and destroy Tarver so he can get a cash out payday, but that’s about the only way a Tarver-Klitschko fight would be interesting. Tarver needs to fight somebody good at the heavyweight level, and I’m not talking about another fringe contender like Aguilera.

A Tarver-Wladiimr fight is a mismatch and an ugly one. Given that he’s already scheduled for a mismatch with Mormeck, it would be bad for boxing in my view for him to take on another aging smaller guy like Tarver. Wladimir doesn’t need to comb the geriatric ward to find opponents. If Tarver is serious about wanting to fight for a heavyweight title then let him work his way to a number #1 ranking to get his shot like the other contenders. He doesn’t deserve a free shot without facing and knocking off a top contender. I think Chambers and Boytsov would both handle Tarver without any problems.