Green 'bigger, stronger and faster'
Danny Green will be bigger and stronger than ever when he puts his International Boxing Organisation cruiserweight title on the line against Antonio Tarver at the Sydney Entertainment Centre tomorrow night.
And in an ominous warning to Tarver, Green’s trainer Angelo Hyder says the WA fighter will also be faster.
“When you learn to relax in boxing that’s where the speed comes and that’s where the power comes and a whole new level of fitness because you’re not using five times the energy to deliver,” Hyder said.
If all goes to plan for the Green camp, that combination of size, strength and speed will combine perfectly against four-time light-heavyweight champion Tarver, who has 28 wins and six losses with 19 stoppage victories.
Green (31-3, 27KO) has bulked up to a career high 90.6kg, just 100g under the cruiserweight limit, while Tarver has slimmed down to 89.2kg after weeks of preparation.
Tarver stripped down and flexed his muscles at the weigh-in to provide evidence of the hard work he has done in shifting more than 10kg since his last fight against Nagy Aguilera at heavyweight nine months ago.
Then it was the turn of Green, at 38 the younger of the two men by four years, to show off his muscular frame.
Tarver, who starred in the last instalment of the Rocky movie franchise and is also a boxing commentator in the US, has plenty of big-fight experience.
He was the first man to stop Roy Jones Jr when, in 2004, he took just two rounds to avenge his points defeat to the boxing legend just six months earlier.
Tarver has also beaten Glen Johnson and Clinton Woods, although high-profile losses to Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson (twice) are among the six red entries on his record.
The “Magic Man,” whose best years were spent in the light-heavyweight (79.4kg) division, says he is comfortable at the cruiserweight (90.7kg) limit and has the skills and power to claim Green’s IBO crown.
“Danny Green is in the fight of his life,” Tarver said today. “Roy Jones had two careers - before (he fought) me and after me.
I’m going to make sure Danny Green is also remembered by two ways, before me and after me.”
Green, who blasted out Jones in just 122 seconds in 2009, is adamant he will have too much for Tarver.
“When the bell goes that’s when I’ll finish this argument once and for all,” he said.
