CULTURETECHLENSAntonio Tarver
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-07978 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-7106.
Antonio Deon Tarver, born November 21, 1968, in Orlando, Florida, built a decorated amateur career — a 1995 world amateur championship and a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics — before turning professional late, in 1997. Fighting as the 'Magic Man,' he won his first world titles in April 2003, outpointing Montell Griffin for the WBC and IBF light-heavyweight championships Jones had vacated. He lost a close majority decision to Roy Jones Jr. that November, then produced the defining result of his career in the rematch on May 15, 2004, in Las Vegas: a second-round knockout of Jones — who, in fifty previous fights, had been sent to the floor only once — that won Tarver the WBC, WBA and Ring light-heavyweight titles. He completed the trilogy with a unanimous decision over Jones in October 2005, lost his Ring title to Bernard Hopkins in 2006, regained the IBF title in 2008, and later campaigned at cruiserweight, holding the IBO title there. The Ring's career assessment credits him with multiple light-heavyweight reigns across the IBF, WBC, WBA and Ring championships in one of the division's deepest eras.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Antonio Deon Tarver, born November 21, 1968, in Orlando, Florida, built a decorated amateur career — a 1995 world amateur championship and a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics — before turning professional late, in 1997. Fighting as the 'Magic Man,' he won his first world titles in April 2003, outpointing Montell Griffin for the WBC and IBF light-heavyweight championships Jones had vacated. He lost a close majority decision to Roy Jones Jr.
The record
- Also known as: Antonio Deon Tarver, Magic Man
Notes
Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0491. Grade note: Tarver is not yet an International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee page of record — Wikipedia reports his election for the Class of 2026, which is NOT relied on anywhere in this record; the Verified grade rests on The Ring's career assessment plus two independent corroborating references, graded on citation substance. The May 15, 2004 knockout is stated exactly as the sources give it: second round, Las Vegas, winning the WBC, WBA and Ring titles (The Ring assessment; Wikipedia concurs). Identity: Antonio Deon Tarver of Orlando, 'Magic Man'; no variance. Blocked edges: the Jones trilogy (S8-22, this packet) and the 2006 Hopkins fight (S8-23, this packet) are bouts only — prose carries them, no edges minted, per the packet rule that bouts alone are not edges. Photo: CLEARED, CC BY-SA 2.0, 2011 photograph by Eva Rinaldi whose Commons file description names Antonio Tarver after his July 2011 match against Danny Green.
Sources
- Rold, Cliff. "Measured Against All Time: Antonio Tarver." The Ring contributor's assessment via Substack. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
- Wikipedia. "Antonio Tarver." Wikipedia.org. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
- StubPass. "Antonio Tarver Wiki Information." StubPass.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
Photograph · rights-cleared record, CultureTechLens Photo Rights Log
Antonio Tarver Raise July 2011
Antonio Tarver Raise July 2011 — Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: CultureTechLens · view at source
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Record CTL-E-7106 · Combined Graph record U-07978 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
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Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Antonio Tarver (CTL-E-7106).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-7106/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Antonio Tarver (CTL-E-7106) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-7106/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Antonio Tarver (CTL-E-7106).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-7106/
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