Heavy & Lt. Heavy Boxing Titles On The Line TONIGHT

Today we will get to experience one of those now rare evenings in which Two major Boxing title matches will be on display -- and even on subscription cable TV. Here in the twenty first century, fights such as those presented this evening are usually viewed at the top of a pay per view card and below them would be two or three fights featuring near nobodies and complete nobodies. But this evening Showtime network will present a contest for one of the major heavyweight titles and a match for the major light heavy weight title.

The light heavy weight tiff will feature the return to the big time of current IBF & IBO Light Heavy Weight Champion Antonio "The Magic Man" Tarver. Years ago Tarver enthralled the boxing world with his magic when he knocked out the boxing icon of the time Roy Jones and went on to seem invincible in his title reign, but that was another time. Then came the time of Mason Dixon and rubbing shoulders with Hollywood and Sylvester Stallone. Tarver seemed to leave his magic in Hollywood and his career seemed to careen off course after that until his recent title win over Englishman Clinton Woods. Tarver seemed to revive some of his old magic in that one, but the Englishman seemed to have bought in to the Tarver hype and appeared defeated as he entered the ring. Will Tarver's experience lead him over his young opponent tonight? At just a month shy of forty years old that becomes a long leap.

Across the ring from Tarver will be the young New Haven super star "Bad" Chad Dawson. Dawson is the epitome of a young fast fighter on the rise and he has the mind of the great former world light heavy weight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad in his corner. Dawson has been down, but he's never failed to get up and win. The young champion relinquished his WBC belt to get this shot at Tarver and he won't be over awed of The Magic Man's reputation as Woods was. Look for this one to be a decision for Bad Chad --- if he doesn't wear Tarver down in the late rounds for a TKO stoppage.

Also on this Showtime venue will be a tape delay viewing of today's WBC heavyweight title fight between the returning Big Brother Klitschko, Vitaly and the reigning WBC heavyweight champion "The Nigerian Nightmare" Sam Peter. Vitaly is the older brother of current IBF and Ring Magazine champion Waldimir Klitschko. The Nightmare wanted and deserves a rematch with the younger Klitschko who he knocked down three times in route to a decision loss. Which was by the way actually a legitimate decision as Wald boxed Sam's ass off and kept that long jab in the Nigerian's face for all the time that Wald was on his feet. Of course there was those three times that he wasn't on his feet, but Sam came to understand this type of win when he himself walked away with a decision over Jamil McCline after tasting the canvas a trio of times himself.
But --- Big "V" wanted to come out of retirement and he actually managed to get through a training camp without being injured as had happened the last couple times Vitali attempted to come out of retirement, so big money said that Big "V" gets the Big Nigerian.

This is two big men who both can really bang, so this might be a thrilling slugfest, that could end in a brutal knock out in either direction. Vitaly might keep Sam on the end of his long jab and then repeatedly slam his sledge hammer right into the Nigerian's big head, till the nightmare awakens on the canvas to find himself no longer champion. But, The Nightmare could slip inside Vitaly's long and stiff arms, pin the tall fellow to the ropes and punish his liver and spleen until the big Ukranian doubles over, thereby bringing his face into range of Peter's powerful hooks and ending Vitaly's comeback.

As entertaining as these scenarios are we should remember how little Chris Byrd made the then 28 - 0 with 28 KO's Vitaly Klitschko repeatedly just miss Byrd's jaw by an inch or less until Vitaly punched so hard that when he missed he threw his own shoulder out. An unheralded masterful defensive technique by Byrd, by the way. But then came Vitaly's lay off which with his political career and his training injuries has kept Vitaly out of action for four years. I think that his inactivity which is complicated by his being prone to structural injuries may lead to an ending of tonight's heavy weight title match with Big Vitaly Klitschko sitting on his stool with a bum shoulder, pulled back, twisted knee or some such. That's the ending I see --- but we will all know the outcome of tonight's boxing double header in a few hours.

Good Night -- Good Fight,
Frank "The Snake"