Can Green make lightning strike twice in Sydney?
The Sydney Entertainment Center in Sydney, Australia will be the sight as Australian knockout artist Danny Green will put his IBO Cruiserweight title on the line and will attempt to add another United States boxing legend to his resume when he faces off against former four-time light heavyweight champion Antonio “Magic Man” Tarver on July 20.
This is an intriguing fight, consisting of one fighter who can further enrich his status in the boxing world with a victory, and another fighter that can increase his legend as a future hall of fame fighter if he can prove the critics wrong and capture one last title before his curtain call. Both fighters are very confident, and are assuring victory come July 20. The question is whether or not Danny Green, as he did agains Roy Jones, Jr., make lightning strike by defeating yet another one of America’s great fighters.
Tale of the Tape
Antonio “Magic Man” Tarver is 42 years old, with a boxing record of 28 wins and 6 losses. He stands at 6 feet 2 inches tall, with a 75 inch reach, fighting out of the southpaw stance.
Danny “The Green Machine” Green is 38 years old, with a boxing record consisting of 31 wins and 3 losses. He stands at 6 feet and 1 inch tall, with a 73 inch reach, fighting out of the orthodox stance.
Tarver vs. Green Preview
Antonio “Magic Man” Tarver is still best known as the man known for derailing Roy Jones, Jr.’s career with one devastating overhand shot. Tarver started boxing in the amateurs, where he captured a world amateur title in the 1995 World Amateur Boxing Championships, and a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
After the Olympics, the Florida born superstar turned professional at the age of 28, and during the early stages of his career, he won his first 16 fights, 13 of those coming by way of either knockout or technical knockout before suffering the first loss of his career to Philadelphia native Eric Harding in a fight where Tarver had a broken jaw and was knocked down by Harding in the eleventh round.
After the Harding fight, Tarver rolled off five straight wins, including a knockout victory over Eric Harding in their rematch, and capturing his first world titles when he defeated Montell Griffin for the vacant WBC and IBF world light heavyweight titles.
The Magic Man is best known for his two fights with Glen “Road Warrior” Johnson, and his trilogy against the great Roy Jones, Jr.
Since fighting Jones and Johnson, Tarver’s career has been up and down, from a win over the always tough and rugged Clinton Woods to capture the IBF light heavyweight title once again, to embarrassing one-sided losses to the great “Executioner” Bernard Hopkins and “Bad” Chad Dawson.
Australian born Danny “The Green Machine” Green is the current IBO Cruiserweight champion, and like Antonio Tarver, Green started out as an amateur boxer, where he participated in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Green was beaten in the Olympics by Russian Alexander Lebziak. Lebziak went on to claim the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
After the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Green turned professional and began his journey through the light heavyweight division, and then later on, cruiserweight. Green, like Antonio Tarver, won his first 16 bouts, all by way of either knockout or technical knockout before losing to German super middleweight world champion Markus Beyer in their first meeting against each other, in a fight where Green knocked down Beyer twice in the early rounds, but was disqualified due to intentional head butts.
Green has quality wins over fighters such as Eric Lucas, Otis Griffin, BJ Flores, and the great Roy Jones, Jr., but Green was most known for his bout with rival and fellow countrymen Anthony Mundine and the two fights with Markus Beyer, and unfortunately he lost all three of those big fights. All three of those losses though came at super middleweight, not his most comfortable division, and he has put together his best run in the past few years, although recently his career was put in jeopardy with a startling health condition.
Tarver vs. Green Prediction
The question is simply this: Does Antonio Tarver have more left in the tank than Roy Jones, Jr., and assuming he does, then how much is there? I believe Antonio has more juice left, but can he control the fight with his jab and movement enough to keep the aggressive Green Machine from getting to him?
Both fighters are planning on going into the ring on July 20 with the same strategy, which is to try and attempt to knock the other guy out early and I expect for this type of fight to break out early.
I expect Danny Green to apply pressure while backing Tarver up, and I expect Tarver to invite the pressure of Danny Green in order to get some effective jabs and counterpunches off. However, if neither man gets knocked out early, both of these fighters have stamina issues during the late rounds in fights. Therefore, if the fight goes into deep waters, I am really not sure who will knock who out. One fighter is 38 years old and the other is 42 years old so there will be no spring chickens in the ring that night.
If I had to give someone the edge in this fight, I am going to have to go with Danny Green only because of the fact that Tarver’s last fight was at heavyweight, and he might have some difficulty coming back down to cruiserweight at this point in his career. My heart is with Tarver; I hope that he can once again capture another crown by winning this fight and then ride off until the sunset. But my gut is telling me that lightning will strike twice at the Sydney Entertainment Center in Australia, and I feel Green will do enough to win this fight and get the job done late by knockout, against an aged Tarver who may not be in the best condition.
Prediction: Green by tenth round knockout.
