Former undisputed Light Heavyweight Champion Antonio Tarver and heavyweight Nagy Aguilera participated in a national media conference call to discuss their upcoming heavyweight bout on Friday, Oct. 15, at Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Okla., on ShoBox: The New Generation, live on SHOWTIME® (11 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).
Tarver, a former undisputed light heavyweight champion and the first man to knock out future Hall of Famer Roy Jones, Jr., will be fighting for the first time as a heavyweight after a hugely successful campaign at 175 pounds. Tarver, of Tampa, Fla., took more than a year off from fighting after his last bout in 2009 and has been serving as an expert commentator for SHOWTIME.
Aguilera, of Newburgh, N.Y. by way of Dominican Republic, boasts an impressive opponent list throughout his three years as a professional. The 24-year-old holds a career-best first round knockout over former WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev in 2009 and has fought against other veteran heavyweights like Samuel Peter and Maurice Harris.
Highlights of what they said Tuesday:
Opening Comments
Aguilera: “This is a very big opportunity for me with Antonio moving up to heavyweight. I’m just very excited about this fight. I’m younger and quicker. I know he has the experience and he is a world champion but I’m younger and I’m hungrier. My job is not to retire guys, but just beat them.”
Nagy Aguilera Questions & Answers
Do you expect to knock Tarver out?
Aguilera: “My expectation is to win by a unanimous decision. That’s what I always train for. But I have good power in both hands so if the knockout comes early or later, it doesn’t matter. It will come. It’s possible the win will come by knockout.”
How do you think you will utilize your size advantage in this fight?
Aguilera: “I have to use it to my advantage because he has the experience. I have to attack him and be first always and try and win the round.”
What have you learned from some of your bigger fights?
Aguilera: “I’ve learned a lot. It’s a lesson for me because I’m a young guy. I’m 24 now, and when I fought Oleg (Maskaev) I was 23. I learned a lot because in boxing you have to do everything right. You have to train, you have to eat right. Sometimes I’m kind of lazy and I do what I want to do. But for this fight my trainer is pushing me and I want to be 100 percent ready.
“I expect (Tarver) to come forward. If the fight is different I just have to make an adjustment and just fight how the fight is going to be.
“I’ve been sparring with lefties and it’s going very well. Everything we are practicing is coming out really well.”
How is important are the first two rounds?
Aguilera: “The first two rounds are where he’s going to prove what he has to prove. After the fight gets going we’ll see what happens.
“This is a big opportunity for me. I’m excited and happy to be fighting him.
“You can never underestimate your opponent. He’s got the experience. He’s the older guy and he knows what he’s doing. I don’t take anything away from him.”
What advice do you give him moving up to heavyweight?
Aguilera: “Well, be prepared for a lot of power. It’s not the same as in light heavyweight.
“Everyday I wake up with the dream to knock out Antonio Tarver. He’s a very good fighter and that would be the best thing in my whole career. I’m confident and I’m ready and I hope he is too.”
Antonio Tarver Questions & Answers
Why the heavyweight division and why now?
Tarver: “I just think that everything happens in time. I just feel like I have so much to offer to the game of boxing and, in hindsight, I may have taken this jump a little earlier. But my time is now. I look at the heavyweight division and there really isn’t a recognizable American that we can truly look at and say, ‘That’s our guy.’ The Europeans have taken over the divisions since Lennox Lewis. He’s European but at least he had a face that we could recognize and say, ‘That’s the heavyweight champion of the world.’ I just think it’s a major, monumental challenge for me. That’s what I’ve always gotten up for, those major challenges. This is just another goal I’ve set for myself.
“I think that God has preserved me for a great, great purpose. And when I look at the things that I’m still able to do in the ring at 41 years old, it has to be a miracle. On Oct. 15 we’re going to see that I’m far from done. I’m far from shot and that age is nothing but a number. You can’t handicap a fight because of a guy’s age because that heart is inside of that guy. And that’s what it’s all about. I’ve been to the mountaintop but who’s to say I can’t get there again and climb all the way to the top of the heavyweight mountain. This is big and this is what I get up for. These next two years will be a crowning moment in my career; to show the people that I can reinvent myself once again and be heavyweight champion once again.”
Why not move up to cruiserweight?
Tarver: “I wanted one fight at cruiserweight. Everyone knows it was Danny Green. But that guy has a yellow streak down his back. He’s a farce and he’s living off a victory over Roy Jones Jr. You can see in his last two fights he wanted nothing to do with anyone with a remote pulse or any type of life in him. So he’s continued to fight corpses so I just let him do what he does. I just want him to recant the statement that I ducked him at any point or any time in his career. I’ve never ducked anyone who it didn’t make sense to fight at that time. He was begging me to fight but it just didn’t make sense and I had bigger fish to fry. When the time was right he did everything in his power to avoid me and show the world that he wanted nothing to do with me. I wanted to go down to Australia, beat his butt, come back with the cruiserweight world title and then move on to heavyweight, but I didn’t get that chance. Why take the step up to cruiserweight when I can fight the big boys right now? I walk around at 225. I’ve always been a big light heavyweight and people don’t understand what it’s been like to have to make weight and be in shape at light heavyweight.
“I’m here to prove on Oct. 15 that the fire never left. I’m still the same fighter, a better fighter today than I ever was. I feel good because I don’t have the stress of losing 30 pounds on me. I don’t have to worry about that now. I’m eating good. I’m taking my supplements. I’m drinking a lot of water. There’s fluid in my muscles and on my brain. I’m healthy right now. I was afraid to put the muscle on because the muscle would weigh more and I wouldn’t be able to make the weight. I wasn’t able to do everything I had to do because I would outgrow the light heavyweight division.”
What about your opponent?
Tarver: “Nagy Aguilera is a young and talented fighter who has beaten world champions but when you look at my experience, I’m sure he’s never faced a fighter with my experience, with my talent, with my skill level and with my ability. And I don’t think the Klitschkos have. Boxing IQ and sense and just knowing what I have to do, how to avoid punches and counter-punches – that’s what I bring to the table. And if I can put a dent in these big boys I’m telling you, you’re talking to the next heavyweight champion.
“My punching power is going to be deceptive because they’re not going to expect it. It’s going to be the punch they don’t see with speed that’s going to get them out of there. I can crack, man. Anyone who has ever taken one of my punches knows that I can hit it and it’s natural power. It’ll be surprising to them and deceptive power.”
Do you think people are excited about your move to heavyweight?
Tarver: “Well, they either think I’m crazy or they think I’m brilliant. They’re excited because there’s not a marquee name that is carrying the torch for the Americans. There’s not a real threat. I just need about two or three fights to show I’m a real threat. You just look at the name – if it’s Tarver-Klitschko or Tarver-Haye, that’s a big name, that’s big business. That’s what we want to bring to the boxing game before I retire. That’s big business and it’s what people want to see. They want to see me get knocked out for destroying a fighter in Roy Jones Jr. There are a lot of fans out there still bitter about that, because Roy Jones was so beloved by so many. They just never saw it coming and his career has never been the same since. There are a lot of people that want to see me get knocked out. So they’re going to be tuning in to see that. To see me get outclassed or beaten to a pulp; they’ve never seen that. And at heavyweight there’s a chance I can get clipped and they can finally laugh at me for doing in a fighter like Roy Jones. People either love you or they hate you but they still want to watch you. That’s why it’s so exciting, because there are so many unknowns. Can I do it? How’s it going to go down? And who will I be fighting?
“No one can fault me for dreaming big. You know, I’ve always dreamed big and I’m going to continue to dream big because what’s the use in living if you can’t live with a purpose. And right now my purpose is to become heavyweight champion of the world.”
Has not having to lose weight affected your conditioning at all?
Tarver: “I’m not having a problem keeping the weight on. I’m running for conditioning only. I’m running comfortably three miles a day. I’m not having to run, four, five miles. I mean, that’s so brutal on your body. I’m well rested. I feel real good. I’m eating baked potatoes and sweet potatoes. I’m having bread. Real good complex carbs. I’m on my supplements, I’ve got my protein working and I’m rested. That’s the key. I’m not killing myself. I can fight harder and I can fight longer. I breezed through eight rounds today. I’m drinking as much water as I possibly can; not worried about putting on a couple extra pounds. And I’m flushing it. That’s what you’re going to see on Oct. 15. I’m not killing myself to lose those 30 pounds.
“I’m not a plodding heavyweight. I’m a dazzling heavyweight. I’ve got moves, speed and quickness. These big guys think they can just come in here and whop me down, they got another thing coming. They’re going to have to find me first. I’m going to be all over them. From every side, every angle. In and out; from the left side and the right. I’m unloading my bag of tricks. I’m 217 right now and I’ll probably come in at 217 and that’s beautiful. I’m not going to be a slow 230 pound fighter. I’m not going to do it. We’re going to match hearts against hearts and will against will and when it comes to the skill they can’t compete so that’s where we’re going to live. That’s where the chips are going to fall. If they don’t knock me out I don’t see them winning.”
What makes you think you can beat the Klitschkos?
Tarver: “I don’t know. I just have it. I have something that I just can’t describe. When I sit back and have goals for myself they come true. I don’t know why, it just does. I was an amateur when I told guys I could beat Roy Jones. I don’t know why, but I just knew it years before it happened. I prophesied it. I just had this vision. I see myself knocking out one of these giants. Now I just have to have the world see it. That’s my dream and that’s my goal and I’m sticking to it until someone beats me.”
What will it be like to be fighting on SHOWTIME, the same network you work for?
Tarver: “That’s going to be crazy, man. It’s going to give them the opportunity to see me work. I’m sure Steve (Farhood) has seen a lot of my fights but to be so close now and being a colleague of theirs, that’s going to be unique. I’m looking forward now to the fighter meetings more than anything, with the producers Richard (Gaughan) and Gordon (Hall). I don’t really know how that’s going to work (laughing). But I think they’ll be real with me. They won’t pull any punches. There are some questions that they have to ask and I have to answer them. When it’s all said and done it will be business as usual. We’re going to take care of business as usual. I’m just glad that ShoBox still believes in Magic and that they’re bringing this fight live to the people on SHOWITME. And if you don’t have SHOWTIME run out and get it because it’s the only way you’re going to see it unless you’re in Miami, Oklahoma, at the Buffalo Run Casino.”
