Antonio Tarver vs Frank Mir Added to Askren vs Paul Card

Oh boy, not this again. If you thought the Ben Askren vs Jake Paul card would have some solid, respectable fights between respectable pro boxers, you thought wrong. Former undisputed light heavyweight boxing champion Antonio Tarver is going up against former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. What is going on here?

Tarver, 52 years old, is an all-time great in his weight class with wins over names like Montell Griffin, Eric Harding, and Roy Jones Jr. Despite being a little up there in age, Tarver has T/KO pro boxing wins as recently as 2014. While he’s no threat to Canelo Alvarez at this point, he’s definitely retained most of the skills that made him champ in the first place. Frank Mir is another story.

Mir has nearly a decade age advantage being 41 as well as being the taller, longer, and heavier fighter. That means close to nothing in this fight. Mir, who’s most famous for getting manhandled by Brock Lesnar at UFC 100, has mediocre hands to say the least. Being a legendary grappler in the UFC, his only KO victories with his hands came against Todd Duffee who is the living embodiment of a glass cannon and Bigfoot Silva who could get knocked out by a Chicago breeze at this point. Nothing he’s shown in the past five or six years gives me any faith that Mir has anything more than a puncher’s chance here. While I honestly applaud Mir for testing himself against someone truly great in boxing, I don’t see this ending well for him unless he has a fat check waiting for him. Will I watch? Of course! Will I enjoy it? In all likelihood, no.