For the past few years,
Antonio Tarver has made the smooth transition from being in the ring to being
Showtime’s color commentator for both its “ShoBox” series and “Championship
Boxing” franchise. A large part of his job sitting ringside is to critique and
analyze the boxers who are televised. Sometimes the truth hurts and those on
the receiving end of critical words will take it personally.
This is precisely how he
ended up in this weekend’s fight versus Lateef Kayode.
As Kayode was cutting his
teeth as a developing prizefighter on “ShoBox” against the likes of Felix Cora
Jr., Matt Godfrey and Nick Iannuzzi, among others, his ears burned as he
eventually heard what Tarver was saying about him on these broadcasts. It angered
the normally mild-mannered and friendly Kayode.
“He's been saying since the
first time I've been on ‘ShoBox.’ He always says I'm aggressive. Sometimes I'll
be slapping; I don't have enough experience,” he said a couple of weeks back on
the steps leading up to the Wild Card Boxing Club, where he trains on a daily
basis. “One of my friends calls me, ‘Hey, you do a good job the last fight but
this man, Antonio Tarver, he says you don't do a good job. What do you do with
this guy?’ So I said, ‘OK, this is getting serious, man.’”
So when Kayode next saw
Tarver- and there are differing accounts of just when it happened- he
confronted him.
Tarver recalled, “I was
commentating a fight; I forgot where it was. It was in the States and [Kayode]
confronted me. He straight up confronted me. I think we were in Vegas at the
time and he said some things and I said, ‘Listen, man, I'm just doing my job.
I'm not personally attacking you, saying anything negative about you
intentionally. But I'm just calling it like I see it.’ I said, ‘If you were to
the point you feel like you don't have anything to work on, then your job
as a fighter is complete. Even I go to training camp every time to try and
get better and improve on things.’ So he didn't take kind to some of the words
I was saying but I was just being honest.”
To this, Kayode responded, “Let’s
fight. Let's show the world what you got, what I got. I think I'm better than
you.” Steve Feder, who manages Kayode, told Maxboxing. “It was an accumulation
of things that he was saying. He was listening to what Kurt Menefee was saying,
what Steve Farhood was saying and it seemed like every fight, each one would
have a critique but Antonio would always add to it, picked his spots. I really
believe that a lot of it, if Antonio was a welterweight, I don't think those
criticisms would have come as strong. I think it's that this guy is looking at
a guy in his division- his newly-found division- and I think that's what
happened.”
Feder recalls that this
altercation took place last April at the Nokia Theater on the night Vic
Darchinyan faced Yonnhy Perez. “All of a sudden, a crowd got around them and
they almost kinda got into it. So this fight has been kinda accumulating since
last April, the building. It is personal. It's personal; no doubt about it and
did the criticism add to it? Absolutely.”
Tarver has never been the
shy, soft-spoken type. In fact, that's why he's perfectly suited for this gig.
And by the way, as Kayode's progress as a fighter seemed to stagnate, was
Tarver particularly out of line in his comments? Truth be told, much of the
viewing audience probably agreed with him. In fact, his own trainer, Freddie
Roach, stated, “He's just doing his job and some of the things are valid,
actually. Antonio's talking a little bit extra now because he knows he's
getting to him a little bit. I told Lateef, ‘Don't let this guy get in your head.
Just fight a smart fight.’ He's doing well in sparring and training and keeping
focused and making the right moves. I hope he carries that over to the fight,
though.”
Roach says that after the Iannuzzi
victory, a fight in which Kayode struggled mightily, he himself had to get on
his fighter after stating that the only important thing was coming out
victorious. After everyone cleared the dressing room, Roach told his charge, “You're
satisfied with that performance? You gotta be kidding me,” he said, adding, “I
gave him a piece of my mind.”
So now it's put up or shut
up for both men.
“I gotta show him, so that's
basically what it is. It's a lot of pressure on me because now I gotta practice
what I preach,” said Tarver with a laugh. Unlike many other pundits of the
sport, Tarver not only boxed but he's had a distinguished career. In fact, he's
far more accomplished than Kayode. Did he ever think of pulling rank on him?” No,
I never went that far with it,” he said. “I just basically told him, ‘Hey, I'm
doing my job. I'm not on your bandwagon; I'm not paid to promote you,’ and
that's what it was. I was just telling him like I saw it. I saw some things he
needed to work on. No doubt he's a talent; he's a very strong fighter, very
aggressive and he can hit and he can punch turn your lights out. But at the
same time, there's a lot of one-punch knockout artists out there that never had
the longevity or could stay long because there were other deficiencies in their
game. So I'm just trying to be a well-rounded, complete fighter that can do
everything well and I'm not just a puncher.”
To Tarver, his younger foe
is everything he's not. While physically talented and imposing, he's also rawer
than sushi and while Kayode possesses youth and energy, he lacks craft and
experience.
The question posed to “The
Magic Man” is, if he were handling Kayode’s career, would he have made this
fight at this particular moment in time? After contemplating it for a few
seconds, he answered, “Listen, of course they're rolling the dice. If they beat
me, they caught lightning in a bottle. But the downside to that is that I ruin
a lot of fighters in one night- ruin them. You never heard of them again. Lincoln
Carter, he was on the same knockout streak till he met me. Chris Johnson, never
fought again. I've ended a lot of careers; fighters were never the same. Eric
Harding, destroyed him in one night; it was over for him. I can see with
[Kayode]’s attitude, with his aggression, with his inexperience, that this guy
can get broken on June 2nd and never be the same fighter because I'm
that type of puncher’ ya feel me? I'm that type of puncher and they take
my power for granted. They take my defense, my boxing skills; they just take me
for granted. But all they can bank on is I show up and become an old man
overnight and if my sparring and my training camp is any indication, it's not
going to happen.”
In his view, Tarver was just
doing his job when calling Kayode's previous fights. And he'll just be doing
his other job on Saturday night against the man who took offense to his words.
For Kayode, this is personal as he believes Tarver crossed the line.
“That's what I thought
because I saw him everywhere; I gave him good respect. I said, ‘Brother, how
you doing, champ?’ I talk to him nice; I never disrespect him, never disrespect
any opponent I fight. I give them respect because they are doing something to feed
a family,” Kayode says. “I do the same thing to feed my family. But this is the
first time I looked at my opponent’s eyes and said, ‘I want to fight you,’ from
my heart. This is personal for me in my life.”
CANELO VS. TBA
The search to find a
suitable dance partner for WBC junior middleweight titlist Saul “Canelo” Alvarez
on September 15th at the MGM Grand took another bizarre twist as
James Kirkland, who just a day or two ago was tabbed to replace Paul Williams,
was then scratched almost immediately from this assignment. Here was a tweet
from Steve Carp from the Las Vegas Review Journal (@stevecarprj):
“James Kirkland injured his
shoulder while training this a.m. and has pulled out of his Sept. 15 fight vs.
Canelo Alvarez at MGM in Vegas.”
But there are whispers that Kirkland
wasn't happy with the money he was to have received for that fight and that
there were people buzzing in his ear to seek a better deal. It just seemed
strange that a guy who wasn't supposed to even begin the boxing portion of his
preparation for this fight till the beginning of July suddenly reinjures his
right shoulder just a day or two after the deal is struck. Regardless, now the
search is on find a new(er) foe for “Canelo”- not named Erislandy Lara- for
this coveted date.
There's already lots of conjecture
about the winner of tonight's bout between WBA junior middleweight champion Austin
Trout and Delvin Rodriguez stepping in. The winner of the rematch between IBF junior
middleweight beltholder Cornelius Bundrage and Cory Spinks is also a
possibility. However, the problem with the latter two is they don't fight till
June 30th. Yeah, this card may seem cursed but trust me; it will
move forward. The question is, just who will televise it? Top Rank, it turns
out, has a hold on the pay-per-view slot for this date. But the word around the
industry is that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer has been in
discussions with both HBO and Showtime to bring this card to their
non-pay-per-view platforms.
Honestly, if you’re down to your third
opponent as the B-side, unless you're a Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather,
it's highly questionable as a pay-per-view event. But if you have “Canelo”
against a solid foe, such as Trout or Rodriguez (who will bring a belt) and an
opening feature of WBC featherweight titlist Jhonny Gonzalez versus Daniel
Ponce de Leon, it's a very good card on either of the premium cable networks.
JULY 7TH
Tickets for the July 7th card at the Home Depot Center, featuring a 122-pound unification bout between
Nonito Donaire and Jeffrey Mathebula and a junior welterweight contest that
sees Brandon Rios taking on Mauricio Herrera, go on sale this morning. Here's
the ticket release:
Promoted by Top Rank, tickets for The
Home Depot Center’s Donaire / Rios World Championship fight card go on sale Tomorrow! Saturday,
June 2, at 10 a.m. PT. Priced at $100, $50 and $25,
tickets can be purchased online at AXS.com or by phone at 888-929-7849 as well as
The Home Depot Center Box Office (open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6
p.m.). Suites are available by calling 1-877-604-8777. For information of group discounts,
please call 1-877-234-8425.
According to Arum, this almost became a tripleheader on HBO, as a clash between
Mike Alvarado and Ruslan Provodnikov was nearly added to this broadcast.
“HBO wanted to put that on but Artie Pellulo had made a deal with ESPN for the
kid [Provodnikov] to fight on June 29th and Alvarado, when July 14th was canceled, got out of training. So that means it was very impractical to do
that fight at that point. So hopefully we'll do it in the fall.”
MIDDLEWEIGHTS
With Felix Sturm deciding to face IBF middleweight beltholder Daniel Geale, as
expected, instead of facing his mandatory contender, Gennady Golovkin, it looks
like we are inching toward a fight between Golovkin and WBO titlist Dmitry
Pirog on August 25th, televised by HBO.
That deal should be finalized once Pellulo, who has Pirog, comes back from
Brazil where Acelino Freitas faces Michael Oliveira.
JULY 14TH
Here's the ticket info for the July 14th card in Las Vegas for the
clash between Amir Khan and Danny Garcia (who may or may not be defending his
WBC 140-pound strap): Tickets
priced at $250, $200, $150, $100 and $50, not including applicable service
charges, are on sale now and available for purchase at the Mandalay Bay box
office and all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith's
Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino). To charge by phone with a major credit
card, call Ticketmaster at (800)
745-3000. Tickets also are
available for purchase atwww.mandaylaybay.com or www.ticketmaster.com.Tickets
for fans traveling from the United Kingdom are available for purchase online at www.sportscorporation.com or
by calling +44 (0)845 163 0845.
QUADRUPLE-HEADER FLURRIES
Tonight’s quadruple-header on Showtime starts at 9 p.m., ET/PT…So now the WBC
will vote on whether Garcia will be allowed to defend his title versus Khan
instead of facing his mandatory challenger? Yeah, you know where this is going.
They're going to say, “No way, Ajose (Olusegun)”...I'm told that Marcos Maidana
has been given a choice by Golden Boy to either open up the July 14th show on HBO (now that Seth Mitchell is a scratch) or the July 28th Showtime bill from San Jose, headlined by Roberto Guerrero and Selcuk Aydin...How
bout dem Kings!!...RIP to Orlando Woolridge, one of the great dunkers of the ‘80s...Yeah,
yeah, I know Floyd Mayweather reported to jail on Friday. I find it interesting
that some are taking such offense at others making light of it. I can see their
point but on the flipside, I don't find that as tasteless as those acting as if
Mayweather is some sort of victim here and someone who should be treated as a
sympathetic figure. Yeah, the man lost his freedom- which is a result of his own
actions...
.
