by David P. Greisman

Antonio Tarver started the video with large sunglasses covering his eyes and part of his face.

But befitting his nickname of “The Magic Man,” they were meant to be an illusion. The truth revealed itself once he took the sunglasses off.

“This the day after the fight, man. I don’t have a mark on me,” Tarver said in a video posted Saturday evening on Facebook, less than 24 hours after his heavyweight bout with Steve Cunningham ended as a draw. “And that’s the bottom line. I took the guy to school. I showed him what boxing was all about.

“I hit all the power punches. I hurt him two or three times. He didn’t touch me with nothing,” Tarver said. “He moving his hands, hitting nothing. Have you ever seen a fighter at that level miss so many times? The guy missed everything he threw. Everything he wanted to land, he didn’t land. I dictated the pace and I won all of the championship rounds. 9, 10, 11, 12. That’s how you close as a champion.”

Tarver said he wasn’t happy with the draw, but that those he had been speaking with had said he won a close fight, 115-113, seven rounds to five. The official scorecards had one judge seeing Tarver ahead at 115-113, another seeing Cunningham the victor at 115-113, and the third judge seeing it even at 114-114.

“I’m not going to let this draw slow me down,” he said. “They lucky I’m not 40 years old. I’d be wiping the mat with them. But I’m 46 and I’m still winning and I’m still taking these young boys to school, and that ain’t going to change.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com