By Keith Idec

NEWARK, N.J. – Antonio Tarver wants his heavyweight title shot to come against Wladimir Klitschko, not Deontay Wilder.

A fight against Wilder would be easier to make because Tarver and Wilder are advised by Al Haymon and compete as part of Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions series, but Tarver hasn’t been shy about making his preference known. If he defeats Philadelphia’s Steve Cunningham (28-7, 13 KOs) on Friday night at Prudential Center (Spike, 9 p.m. ET/PT) – or when he beats Cunningham, according to Tarver – the former light heavyweight champion wants what he believes he’ll have earned.

“They’re just trying to stop me from getting to the promised land,” Tarver said regarding a fight against Wilder (34-0, 33 KOs), the WBC heavyweight champion. “I’m worthy of [fighting] Klitschko right now. When you look at his resume and the guys he’s been fighting, these guys can’t fight. The only reason they want me to fight Wilder is so that I can stub my toe along the way. Period. Klitschko and Tarver – that’s the fight.

“He’ll be in there with a seasoned veteran, a guy that has five championships to his name, a guy that knows how to fight, that knows how to win. And yeah, I’ll be a major underdog. I always have been. It never stopped me from achieving. So I don’t look at the odds. I look at the historical landscape of that fight. That’s the only thing getting me up in the morning, knowing that I’m one step closer [to a Klitschko fight] after Friday night.”

The 46-year-old Tarver, who played villainous heavyweight Mason “The Line” Dixon in the sixth installment of the ‘Rocky’ franchise, is 2-0 as heavyweight since resuming his career in November 2013 following a one-year steroid suspension for failing a post-fight PED test after a June 2012 cruiserweight fight against Lateef Kayode in Carson, Calif. He knocked out Detroit’s Johnathon Banks (29-3-1, 19 KOs) in his last fight eight months ago, but beating Cunningham would give the Orlando, Fla., native a victory over a heavyweight rated in the top 10.

“I’m ready and I’m going to show Friday night that I’m ready to fight for the ultimate prize in sports, and that’s the heavyweight championship,” Tarver said, before alluding to a fight against Klitschko (64-3, 53 KOs). “It’d be like shooting a real, live ‘Rocky’ movie in front of the whole world to see. I’m always about the great, impossible feat. I want this before I retire. It’s history in the making. This is what I get out of bed in the morning for.”

While acknowledging he’d be a huge underdog against the 6-foot-6, 245-pound Klitschko, the 6-2, 220-pound Tarver believes he’d give the massive Ukrainian champion fits.

“Klitschko deserves it,” said Tarver, who also dismissed Tyson Fury’s chances of upsetting Klitschko on Oct. 24 in Dusseldorf, Germany. “He can fight who they put in front of him. But he’s never been tested, man. He don’t like to fight southpaws. He can’t beat a southpaw – period. And one as sharp and as cagey as I am, and at 46, I’m telling you, man, it’d be the biggest story in boxing. I’m 46 years old, looking to surpass George Foreman [as the oldest man to win a heavyweight title]. And he’s looking to surpass Larry Holmes [20 consecutive heavyweight title defenses]. It’s history in the making. We both deserve that fight.”

Klitschko, 39, has won 22 straight fights and made 18 consecutive defenses of the IBF heavyweight title he won when he knocked out Chris Byrd nine years ago. He also owns the WBA and WBO titles.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.