Why Bernard Hopkins will slay the Italian Dragon

Adam, yep good point, everyone started ganging up on me and started to think I was mad ::

But no I'm not, Tarver has never been THAT good, and the version that Hopkins fought was shit like I said, certainly not as good as Kessler.

 

Tarver is easily one of the most underrated fighters of the past 15 years.

 

Seriously? He became the first guy to not only legitimately beat Jones, but KO him, a big accomplishment - but what else has he done?

 

His resume is so far removed from Jones' caliber @ 175. He beat a number of the same fighters and Jones himself. Somewhat like fans are alright in giving Marquez credit for not getting big fights early in his career, I feel somewhat the same way about Tarver, who was basically avoided for a good two years before he got his chance.

He's better than just being a guy who beat Jones with "a lucky punch" or got beta by 75 year old Hopkins and thats EXACTLY the way most fans want to portray him as.

 

I don't think it was a lucky punch, I give him a lot of credit as I stated.

But was he ever that impressive before jones?

He KO'd Eric Harding after losing to him the first time around. What else?

Jones was a multi weight champion who beat opponents with absurd ease, a pretty far cry from Tarver.

I always thought Tarver was dangerous, and was not as shocked as some when he KO'd Jones, but at the same time he was never that impressive, and also he has hardly been impressive since.

 

Im talking about Jones @ 175, no where else.

Glen Johnson, Reggie Johnson, Eric Harding, Jones x 2 and Montell Griffen. Those are all top ten fighters and in Jones, "P4P" the best fighter on the planet. Glen Johnson was FOTY when he beat him, Reggie Johnson a former two wright champion.

It is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.

 

so how highly do you rate him them?.....He went 1-1 with Glen Johnson, who i think gave Jones more of a sustained beating....although not too much should be read into the Jones fights, after all they are the reason that Tarver's reputation has become distorted.....take them away and you get a clearer picture......

1-1 with Harding, 1-1 with Glen Johnson.....Tarver - good title holder, who was at one time certainly the top of his weight division......but no more than that.....i think the majority of fans would agree with that assessment, so am i underrating him?

 

Kessler is a better fighter then any version of Tarver ...
He's just a better. He does everything better and faster then Tarver ever could ..

 

Agreed ...
Not to mention he was getting his ass handed to him in the second Harding fight as well until he landed.

IMO Kessler would kick the shit out of any version of Tarver unless Tarver is lucky enough to land that one punch.

 

He went 2-0 with Johnson in my I book, but the firt fight was close.

Johnson gave Jones a more sustained beating? Please. Just because a fight goes like three times as long, doesn't mean a damn thing. Tarver got Jones out of there in 2. I think Tarver did the better job and did it first. How about that?

He DID lose to Harding, in a fight where he was totally busted up and got run over in the second half of the fight because of it. But they did fight again and the fight was a slaughter.

I don't give half a shit if 99.999% of fans agree with you. I'm saying they would as well. Thats my point. I'm also saying I think they're wrong. But hey. they all agree with you, chap :bears:

 

I say overrated .... After getting his ass kicked and appeared to be on the verge of quiting , he landed on Harding in the rematch.
In my opinion had he not landed that one punch , we might not have ever even discussed his name on this message board.
Tarver is the type of fighter that had he lost a decision in the second Harding fight , he may have disapeared into the abyss ...

 

Slaughter ?? Not sure what you mean. Are you saying this cause Harding got stopped ???
Slaughter is a strange word to use cause it was more like a last ditch effort that saved Tarver in the rematch.
Harding was outright owning Tarver and making him look like a fool.
Tarver had that same look on his face that he had toward the end of the Hopkins fight. However in the Harding fight he blindly threw a bomb and landed. Yes , a legit victory but , you must understand that he won out of desperation. Thats a little different then say how PBF beat Gatti which can be considered a slaughter....

 

"Blindly" :: This is exactly what I'm saying. Tarver only wins via luck. He must be irish!

 

I never said that. However if you are familiar with the Harding rematch , you would understand where I'm coming from ... I mean its pretty clear what happend in that fight.

 

I'm amazed you think that highly of Tarver. Apart from Jones, the facts are, he is evens up with Johnson and Harding, and was not really impressive in any of them apart from the Harding KO.

He's no bum, but one can hardly call him a great fighter either, or the most underrated fighter of the last 15 years. A good fighter that had one GREAT win.

 

I was hesitant to include the Johnson beating Jones point, because it is very hard to judge where Jones was at in any of his fights with Tarver or with Johnson (other than that he was far from his best)

I am with CYC on the 2nd Harding fight.....i remember watching it live, Tarver was did nothing for the first 3 rounds, lost all 3 of them i think, then he came to life in the 4th, and then put Harding away in impressive fashion in the 5th

The reason i said that i think the majority of fans agree with me, wasn't to promote myself as some sort of boxing guru, but in order to clarify whether or not my view is in line with the many who are apparently 'underrating' Tarver

 

Hopkins is gonna have Joe C crying after the fight.. that's my bet.. he will just dominate him and make him his bitch and Joe c will be BROKEN

 

You called it a slaughter. What exactly does that mean? Was Tarver winning or losing when he KO's Harding in the re?

 

I thought Tarver was a dead man in the Hopkins fight. I'm not sure how much credit Hops could even take from that fight, Tarver sucked so badly.

I also think Kessler would have a shot at beating any version of Tarver espcially when you only have a 50-50 chance of the competitive version of Tarver showing up. Tarver can never be considered great because he lacked consistency and fire.

Tarver always seemed to think he deserved to be considered great and better than he was given credit for because of a great amateaur career, but he rarely seemed motivated to go out and earn greatness in his pro career. The dude was mediocre at best and he was often the problem, not his opponents.

 

Tarver sucks. He's done and will lose to Woods I have no doubt. When you cant even clearly beat Elvir Murqui you are done as an "elite" fighter. I stuggle to even mention elite and Tarver in the same sentence. Sure he has a win over Roy but in Roys best days he toyed with the type of guy Tarver lost to.

 

That's been my point on this thread. The tarver that turned up to fight Nard was SHIT.

 

Same Tarver as always. He just couldn't do shit with Bernard.

 

Cosign

 

AgREED entirely... :clap:

 

Tarver is gonna starch Woods.. watch!

 

:bears::bears::bears:

 

Hopkins is past his prime.........and IMO, benefitted from a weak division combined with smaller competition.

Joe will beat his ass easily by decision.

 

Good dunk mate, good dunk. :bears:

 

That was the same younger Tarver from the rematch with Harding.
Only difference is that after getting owned and his ass kicked for a while , he was not able to land a haymaker on Nard like he did to Harding.
Other then the lack of a haymaker that can be contributed to Nard's skills , that was the identical Tarver ...

 

It's amazing how revisionist people love to be. Antonio Tarver was the top Lightheavy in the world when Hopkins easily handled him. As I said before, this is the same Tarver that beat both Jones and Johnson within the same 12 months of getting destroyed by Hopkins.

You can't diminish Tarver's standing before the Hopkins simply because Hopkins made him look like shit DURING the fight.

Hell, what was Tarver again, almost a 3-1 favorite?