He was a decorated champion and is now long retired but Antonio Tarver still regrets not having one fight, saying ‘they didn’t want the smoke.’
American Olympic bronze medallist Tarver is still the only boxer in history to win gold at the Pan Am Games, World Championships and the U.S. Nationals in the same year.
He turned professional in 1997 and went on to win multiple light heavyweight world championships, including the WBA, WBC, IBF and Ring magazine titles, as well as the IBO belt in the cruiserweight division.
He had famous wins against the likes of Roy Jones Jr and lost only to the best such as Bernard Hopkins. Away from the professional ranks he also starred in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa as heavyweight champion Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon.
Speaking to One On One Boxing he has now revealed the one fight he felt got away from him.
“It would have been the Joe Calzaghe fight cause he did it all.”
He then explained he was the top man in the division back then so should have been the target for Calzaghe.
“He beat my man Jeff Lacey in amazing fashion, then he came over here for Hopkins. But I had already proved myself. I had beat Roy and I was king of the division, They didn’t want that smoke. Everybody saw me as a risk. They didn’t want to pay me the championship money.”
These days the ‘The Magic Man’ still watches boxing and recently named his top three fighters.