Thread: Tarver fight postponed, ABC comeback in trouble

ABC
Sunday, April 22 2007
Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, NJ
Antonio Tarver vs. Elvir Muriqi (light heavyweights)

WTF?!?!?!?!?!!

According to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, Tarver is slated to fight Elvir Miriqi on Sunday, April 22nd on ABC. This is a very meaningful fight to see if boxing can pull signifigant ratings on National television.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/box...dan&id=2808676

Former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver is not the only one making a comeback. So is ABC, a onetime stalwart of televised boxing.

here comes the comeback

It's very good news for boxing fans that ABC is even taking this step... I just wish they had a better card put together to test the waters, you know?? I guess Tarver is a decent name still though, and this guy he's fighting has never faced anyone of class so he should blow him out and look good.. I hope it's a great fight, for ratings sake.

Tarver-Muriqui

FIGHT IS OFF!

Wednesday, April 11 2007

By Lisa Scott

The light heavyweight match up between Antonio Tarver and Elvir Muriqui on April 22nd at Boradwalk Hall in Atlantic City has been postponed for reasons yet to be disclosed. The bout, which was to be televised by ABC, would have been Tarver’s first fight since his unanimous decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in June 2006. Rumor has it that Tarver is "not in shape for the fight."

http://www.fightnews.com/fightnews_2...kzXDkHZnx.html

Originally Posted by p4pking

It's very good news for boxing fans that ABC is even taking this step... I just wish they had a better card put together to test the waters, you know?? I guess Tarver is a decent name still though, and this guy he's fighting has never faced anyone of class so he should blow him out and look good.. I hope it's a great fight, for ratings sake.

tarvers the best boxer to bring boxing back into the national spotlight for the following reason: He was just in a rocky movie and is probably the best known boxer in america at this point among non-boxing followers.

in response to the post that comes just before mine

Originally Posted by Danny_G

Tarver-Muriqui

FIGHT IS OFF!

Wednesday, April 11 2007

By Lisa Scott

The light heavyweight match up between Antonio Tarver and Elvir Muriqui on April 22nd at Boradwalk Hall in Atlantic City has been postponed for reasons yet to be disclosed. The bout, which was to be televised by ABC, would have been Tarver’s first fight since his unanimous decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in June 2006. Rumor has it that Tarver is "not in shape for the fight."

http://www.fightnews.com/fightnews_2...kzXDkHZnx.html

wow thats fucking gay

i dont care if he in shape or not hes gotta take one for the team.

Ridiculous.

wow the only way i can make sense of this is the appeal/recognition he got from rocky. cause i know executive producers and the worst cutthroat stingy ones are major network ones.

i say we write to tarver and tell him to take the fight anyway i mean its not like he's fighting a world class opponent and it would be in his better interest to be considered one of the boxers who brought boxing back into the spotlight.

You can check the story out at this link.

Former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver's ring return was supposed to coincide with the return of boxing on ABC, but Tarver's fight has been postponed and the network's comeback may have been knocked out.

Promoter Joe DeGuardia pulled the plug this week on Tarver's April 22 fight against Elvir Muriqi (34-3, 21 KOs). The 12-round bout was supposed to take place in the 3,000-seat room upstairs at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

There were numerous problems finalizing sponsorship deals and delivering acceptable commercials to ABC, which was not paying a license fee to air the fight. Under the deal, DeGuardia was going to buy the one-hour block of time on a Sunday afternoon and sell commercial spots. ESPN, which oversees sports programming on sister network ABC, was going to produce the telecast.

Had DeGuardia gone through with the deal as it stood at ABC's early-week deadline, he was looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. With time running short and the fight still not officially announced -- although tickets have been on sale for a couple of weeks -- he had to call off the show.

DeGuardia declined to discuss specifics of the deal, but he said the postponement was "due to a combination of factors."

"I'll speak to both fighters and determine their schedules and see what dates make sense to reschedule the fight," DeGuardia told ESPN.com. "We want to properly promote it and we were running out of time. I know the fighters have trained and were at the stage where they were peaking. I expect it to take place before the mid-summer."

Whether ABC, which hasn't televised a fight since June 17, 2000, is involved in a rescheduled bout remains to be seen.

"I'd love to have it on ABC, but I will have to talk them. It's complicated because you have to clear time," DeGuardia said. "Right now my primary focus is to work to see that the fight takes place one way or another."

Tarver (24-4, 18 KOs), 38, who is trying to rebound from losing a the light heavyweight championship to Bernard Hopkins in June 2006 in lopsided fashion, emphatically denied rumors that the fight was called off because he is not in shape.

"I woke up this morning at 182 pounds in great shape and ready to go," Tarver told ESPN.com from his Florida training camp. "Contrary to what people are saying, the fight is not off because I am not in shape. That is a lie. I am in great shape and ready, willing and able to satisfy my end of the bargain. For whatever reason, the fight was postponed. But it had nothing to do with Antonio Tarver. This is my comeback fight and I am taking every fight deadly serious."

Tarver said he understands the business of boxing and that mounting an expensive promotion with no guaranteed television money is difficult.

"Joe had guaranteed me a minimum purse and when they got into the thick of things it may have been hard to realize that," Tarver said. "It may have been harder with network TV than they anticipated. We had to go out and secure sponsorships. Maybe they were not paying the type of money that was anticipated. There is only so much you can do in the short amount of time we had to do it."

Tarver said he would take one week off and then get back in camp and wait for the fight to be rescheduled, hopefully on ABC.

"I'll be ready whenever it is," he said. "I want to get three fights in this year and let people know I am back. I'm staying in shape. That's going to be the difference. Hopefully, we can still do this on ABC. I want to take my fight to network TV so people can see me without paying for it on pay-per-view or having to pay extra for premium cable. I'm heartbroken that we couldn't get this done. Hopefully, we can in the future."

Tarver definiely saying the right things and as pompous as he is, I'm with him on this one. I really want to see how boxing does in primetime.