Ring of Fire: Danny Green-Antonio Tarver Could Be Revisited

Green-Tarver Could Be Revisited

With Danny Green having just returned to sparring and working out in the gym following a January surgery to remove his appendix and a "large abscess," the biggest rumor floating around is that Green will look to fight American veteran and former legit light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver next. The two had a deal in place to fight on Showtime in late 2007, which fell apart when it turned out the contracts weren't signed.

Back when that all went down, Green instead took a fight in Australia with Stipe Drews, winning a wide decision in Australia to claim a trinket at 175 pounds, while Tarver took on the far less dangerous Danny Santiago. The whole thing is something I found quite disappointing at the time, as I personally thought Green was going to give Tarver hell and maybe even knock him out, given how poor Tarver had looked in his previous fight with Elvir Muriqi, but it didn't come to pass. Green then "retired" and missed all of 2008, while Tarver got his groove back to some degree by beating Clinton Woods before two straight losses to Chad Dawson and, most recently, a hugely underwhelming debut as a heavyweight last October, one month before his 42nd birthday. Tarver beat Nagy Aguilera, but the world hardly came away from the fight clamoring for his continued heavyweight imitation.

Speaking with The West Australian, Green dismissed the idea that he would fight Tarver (or Garth Wood), and says he's lining up a European opponent. Considering that Green is 38 and well aware of the fact, Tarver's probably about as good as we're going to get. It would be another notable name for him to sell a fight in Australia, a former world champion and the man who knocked out Roy Jones Jr. for real, not just because Roy Jones was a has-been. Plus they have some history that I don't think either of them have really gone into as much as they could, especially to hype a fight. Green might look elsewhere first, but I would go so far as to expect Green-Tarver by year's end. I think Antonio learned he's no heavyweight, but appears to want to fight still. This could be as relevant a fight as he's getting.

Fragomeni Pulls Out, Huck Searching for New Opponent

Sauerland Event sent out a press release on Monday confirming an injury to Giacobbe Fragomeni, the aged Italian cruiserweight who was set for an April 2 challenge to Marco Huck. No replacement opponent has been named, but I'm sure there are plenty of mid-tier cruiserweights who would love to take the chance. I might actually like to see BJ Flores jump in there if he were in training and in shape, but we're talking two weeks' notice and Flores has never exactly been a risk-taker. I just think Huck's ultra aggressive nature could actually bring the best out in Flores -- or crumble him in fairly short order. It'd be interesting to find out.

Emanuel Steward Legitimizes Zbikowski

Emanuel Steward has been hired to help legitimize this Tom Zbikowski stuff, as the legendary trainer of Tommy Hearns, Wladimir Klitschko, Miguel Cotto and so many others is now working with Zbikowski, and will be in the Ravens safety's corner for his fight in Las Vegas on Saturday. Check out his great enthusiasm in this quote from tthe article at Sports Illustrated:

"He told me boxing was his first love," Steward said. "I don't know where this is going to go right now but he seems committed to it."

Steward did also comment on Zbikowski's "beautiful" balance in the ring, and said he doesn't box like a football player -- "he boxes like a boxer." Consider me to still be incredibly skeptical of all of this, but you can't fault Zbikowski for making some money. I bet a lot of guys wish they could do something like this right now, even with the NFL lockout still highly unlikely to put any of these guys on line at the soup kitchen. The lockout is basically allowing Zbikowski to live out a dream to whatever degree it will be lived out, and the attention he's getting these Top Rank cards probably isn't upsetting them too much. It's a gimmick, but so are a lot of things.

Potshots

• The Ring has a James Kirkland fluff piece.
• Y'wanna see Kevin McBride workin' out? Here you go (Fightnews.com).
• Here's an instance where I won't take a shot at Oscar de la Hoya, as he visited troops in the Middle East. Adrien Broner, Danny Jacobs and Seth "Mayhem" Mitchell also went along.
• Michael Katsidis told the Brisbane Times that the cut he suffered training for Robert Guerrero on April 9 won't be an issue.
• Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com reported that the company called "The Empire" will no longer promote boxing. Boy, that's a shame. Think of all their great and memorable successes. For instance, their web site. The only truly notable guy who might become a free agent is Austin Trout. The rest of their roster is either old men (James Toney, Hasim Rahman) or mediocre prospects. Reeno says that Greg Cohen is looking to promote on his own and retain Trout's contract for the time being, though.