Blackzilians get a new head striking coach
Antonio Tarver: “I’m glad to be working with these guys and it shows me that there is still something there for me to make a big splash and impact on.”
The Blackzilians team has seen considerable turmoil lately, but recently took a big step forward. During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, boxing great Antonio Tarver, 48, announced that he had been named head striking coach.
It’s been a process in the making for some time, but Glen Robinson reached out to me three weeks ago, we sat down and we chopped it up,” explained Tarver, as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMA Mania. “The next thing I know, I’m the head striking coach for the MMA Blackzilians. It’s exciting. I’m glad to be working with these guys and it shows me that there is still something there for me to make a big splash and impact on. I never though it would be in MMA, I thought it would be in the heavyweight division. But, it is what it is.
“Right now I am just following my dream and footsteps of doing what I know what I can do, and that’s help fighters. I’ve always seen myself in this position. I didn’t think it’d be in MMA, but in boxing, though it’s still the same thing, as I have a great opportunity to make a difference in these men’s lives and help them reach their goals of becoming champion and getting the success of their career. Not only showing them and teaching them the sweet science, but also just giving them confidence because I have been there, and I’ve done that at the highest level. When you look at a five-time champion, and some of the biggest nights in boxing, there are some things that these young fighters are not going to be aware unless they go through it and experience it.
“What I want to do is create some very exciting knockout punchers, that really know the skill and art of boxing. Once I incorporate that into their training in MMA, it automatically makes them a more complete, overall well-rounded fighter from the ground to standing up. I want to help the Blackzilians to become a more complete team, and a bunch of mean fighting machines.
Tarver is a multiple-time light heavyweight world champion, having held the WBA (Super), WBC (twice), IBF (twice) and The Ring magazine titles (twice), as well the IBO light heavyweight (three times) and cruiserweight titles. Tarver won a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics. He remains the only boxer in history to have won gold at the Pan Am Games, World Championships and U.S. Nationals all in the same year. Outside of boxing, Tarver starred as Mason “The Line” Dixon, the heavyweight champion in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa.
Source: Wiki