Antonio Tarver
Cruiserweight
On 20 July 2011,
Tarver took on Australian IBO cruiserweight champion Danny Green at
the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Sydney, New South Wales, Austrailia,
in Tarver's debut in the 200 lb cruiserweight division.
Tarver
dominated the fight, knocking Green down in the second round and controlling
the majority of the action from there on in. After taking heavy punishment
and being saved by the bell at the end of round 9, Green failed to
come out for the start of round 10, allowing Tarver to take the victor
and the title by TKO.
Following the rematch
loss to Dawson, Tarver took over a year off from the ring, before
returning on 15 October 2010 to defeat Nagy Aguilera by a 10 round
unanimous decision in a bout that took place in the heavyweight division.
For this fight Tarver officially weighed 221 lbs, some 46 lbs more
than he had weighed for the Dawson rematch.
On February
25, 2021, it was announced that Tarver would be returning to the ring
for the first time since 2015. He was signed to face former UFC Heavyweight
Champion Frank Mir in Mir's boxing debut on April 17 on the undercard
of Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren. Tarver intended to represent mental health
advocacy and has said he would dedicate the bout with Mir to all survivors
or victims of mental health disorders. However, on March 23, it was
announced that Tarver had withdrawn from the bout after not being
cleared by the Georgia Athletic & Entertainment Commission. He
was replaced by former IBG cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham.
Media
Rocky
Balboa
Tarver starred as heavyweight champion Mason "The Line" Dixon
in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa. In the film, the current, unpopular
champion Dixon fights former champion Rocky Balboa, who decides to
come out of retirement. Dixon wins the match by split decision, and
after breaking his hand in the second round of the bout but still
managing to stand toe to toe with Rocky for the full 10 rounds, proves
to doubters that he has the heart of a champion. The DVD of the movie
offers an alternate ending, in which Rocky wins the split decision.
Dixon's record before the fight is 33-0 (33 KO). Also on the DVD,
the film's writer and director Sylvester Stallone wanted to cast a
real boxer in the role of Dixon, as he thought it would be easier
to teach a boxer how to act than to teach an actor how to box convincingly.
Tarver is one of only three fighters to actually defeat "Rocky Balboa"
in film.
After his loss to Dawson in June, 2012, Tarver served as a boxing analyst for Showtime Champion Boxing.