Antonio Tarver vs. Johnathon Banks: Winner, Recap and Analysis

Antonio "Magic Man" Tarver entered his match with Johnathon Banks looking to prove he's an ageless wonder. The 46-year-old boxer did exactly that with a seventh-round knockout of Banks in the heavyweight bout. 

Leading up to the knockout, both boxers put on a slow-moving match that finally picked up with two knockdowns in the seventh. Brian Campbell of ESPN provides a look at the final from the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California:

Prior to the match, Tarver made it very clear that he would be prepared to battle Banks in the co-main event bout.

"If I'm rusty, it will only be until I'm hit,” Tarver said, via Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “I've been trying to wear off ring rust with intelligent sparring, but that's not like getting reps of a fight."

It has been nearly a year since Tarver stepped into the ring, but the experienced boxer looked strong early against Banks. He wasn't able to land many punches, but he caught Banks with several left-handed blows.

Boos rained throughout the arena as neither fighter threw a bevy of punches early on. Rafael gave his in-depth analysis of the opening of the match:

As the trainer to Wladimir Klitschko, Banks knows all about what it takes to put together a full match. Unfortunately, he looked tentative after getting hit with a few early punches and never seemed to rebound.

His defensive style led to more interesting reactions from both Bernardo Osuna and Nigel Collins of ESPN:

Almost immediately after the negativity was swelling for both fighters, Tarver took over in the seventh. He led with an onslaught of jabs but followed up with finally stepping into his punches to put Banks up against the ropes.

Banks went down once, got an eight count, then stepped back into another slew of direct shots from Tarver. The fight was stopped shortly after with Tarver yet again using his left hand to pull out the win, as Steve Kim of UCNLive.com points out:

Regardless of whom Banks fights after his match with Tarver, he has a lot to look forward to while training Klitschko. His success in the ring took a hit against Seth Mitchell in 2013, but he'll be looking to continue his winning ways in the future against whomever he faces. 

Announcer Teddy Atlas noted at one point during the match that losing the match might mean Klitschko might think about looking for another trainer. However, Klitschko is undefeated with Banks as his trainer and won't be going anywhere, as Rafael points out:

At his advanced age, Tarver's career seems to be winding down regardless of the result. His success recently, however, proves that even at 46 he can still match up with fighters much younger than him, similar to Bernard Hopkins.

Though he wants a shot at a heavyweight title, that fight may never come. But with his ability to stand toe-to-toe with Banks on Thursday night, he still has a lot of fight in him to potentially have a shot to become the oldest heavyweight champion.