By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF/WBA/WBC light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver (29-6, 20 KO’s) is in the profess of finalizing a deal to fight unbeaten cruiserweight contender Lateef Kayode (18-0, 14 KO’s) on May 26th at a still to be determined venue. This isn’t the fight that the 43-year-old Tarver was looking for, as he was hoping to get in a fight against WBC cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk but he’s busy defending his title and isn’t free at the moment.

Instead, Tarver will look to beat Kayode by an impressive fashion. Kayode, #2 WBA, #3 WBC, #5 WBO, #11 IBF, is a highly ranked fighter with good power and a high work rate. A lot of boxing fans see him as a future champion in the division. However, he’s 29 and not particularly fast and has tad bit too much muscle for his own good. He throws too many arm punches and doesn’t move all that well.

Kayode is trained by Freddie Roach, which is a positive for him, but even Roach can only do so much for his fighters. Tarver is clearly a level above Kayode and the only way I see Kayode winning this fight is if Tarver all of a sudden gets old over night. I doubt that’s going to happen because even Tarver at 75% of what he once was is still far too good for a slow arm puncher like Kayode.

This will be a good stay busy fight for Tarver and he can use this to build up more press for when he takes on one of the champions in the cruiserweight division. Tarver wants to get a fight with Wladimir Klitschko, the IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion, but it might require that Tarver knock off at least one top 15 contender to get the fight. Thus far, Tarver has fought once at heavyweight beating Nagy Aguilera by a 10 round decision in October 2010. Tarver didn’t look too bad in that fight it’s unclear why he didn’t continue to take on other heavyweights so he could get the title shot. In his next fight, Tarver defeated IBO cruiserweight champion Danny Green by a 9th round stoppage last July.