REAL `ROCKY' STORY MOVIE FOE TARVER, 38, FACING HIS OWN RING CHALLENGE.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE Staff Writer

He walked into the restaurant without much fanfare, even though his wardrobe indicated there should be.

The diamond-studded cross around his neck was blingin.' His watch had too many carats to count. The black jeans were designer, but not trying too hard to look like it.

Yep, Antonio Tarver had this role down perfectly.

But as the former three-time light-heavyweight champion walked through the crowded dining room at the trendy Century City restaurant, nary a head craned to see him. Not one patron approached for an autograph. He could've been anyone.

Tarver noticed. Of course he noticed.

Three-time light-heavyweight champions aren't supposed to be ignored.

Nor is a guy who's starring in ``Rocky Balboa,'' the sixth and final installment of Sylvester Stallone's iconic Rocky saga, which will open in theaters Wednesday.

It's always been like this for Tarver, known to his fans as ``The Magic Man.'' He's used to it. When you don't start your professional boxing career until the age of 28, it's fair to assume you've spent a lot of time going unnoticed and under-appreciated with a boulder-size chip on your shoulder.

A lot of people thought that's how Tarver would finish his career, too. In June, he looked worn and listless -- a result of taking off more than 40 pounds he'd gained to play a heavyweight in ``Rocky Balboa'' -- in a loss to Bernard Hopkins.

Now 38, Tarver looked to be finished, and most figured he'd take his voluble personality to the entertainment world.

Of course, no one thought Stallone would have the guts to trot out a sixth Rocky movie 16 years after ``Rocky V'' flopped at the box office and among critics.

Even fewer thought the movie's premise of an aging, 58-year-old Rocky Balboa making a comeback to fight the current heavyweight champion of the world, Tarver's character Mason ``The Line'' Dixon, would fly.

But anyone who's ever cheered for the legendary Italian Stallion from Philadelphia knows Rocky has a way of pulling off the impossible.

That's why we love him. Why Tarver grew up loving him. And part of the reason why Tarver is going to try taking a page right out of Rocky's playbook.

``When I look at Rocky and all that Rocky stands for, I feel like I'm living that,'' Tarver said. ``I've got my back against the wall.

``I'm coming off a loss that a lot of people in the business thought I should've won. Now I have to look deep down within myself to find out what am I made of as a man and as an athlete.

``If I retired today or tomorrow, I'd have doubts about whether I ever really gave it my all. Did I ever really commit to my game?''

Just then, the waitress comes over to take his order. Tarver hadn't yet looked at the menu.

``Just bring me something healthy,'' he said. ``Chicken, salmon, vegetables, something like that, OK. And water, with some lemon. No soda.''

He's been eating right for a month now. It's too hard to take off weight now so he can't afford to put it on.

He's training for a tuneup fight at Staples Center in February and dreaming of a rematch with Hopkins, who recently came out of retirement and announced that he'd like to take on the heavyweight division.

``Before I fought Hopkins, I didn't do anything from October until March, when we started training camp,'' he said. ``Then I had a 10-week training camp where I focused so much on losing the weight, I lost focus on the fight.

``Give credit to Hopkins. He fought a great fight. ... But I'd like to see myself at my best and Hopkins at his best and see what would happen.''

You have to ask.

The similarities are just too eery. The themes just too close.

In the movie, Stallone utters almost exactly the same words. The plot centers on an aging Balboa who is middling through middle age.

His wife, Adrian, died of cancer after ``Rocky V''; his son, Rocky Balboa Jr. (Milo Ventimiglia), is distant, overwhelmed by his dad's fame.

Rocky passes his days telling stories and entertaining the guests at his restaurant, Adrian's. His past glories are just that. His future is empty.

``Everything he thought was the ultimate dream is gone and now he's just alone,'' Stallone said. ``Your best years have supposedly come and gone and you're alone, you wonder, What do I do now?''

He finds that focus about midway through the movie, when an ESPN computer simulation predicts that Rocky Balboa would beat Dixon if both were able to fight in their primes.

At first, Rocky shrugs off his feelings, dismissing them as crazy.

But they won't go away. His gut is talking. That urge to fight is still there, even if it's bubbling all the way up from ``the basement,'' as he puts it.

If he doesn't follow that feeling, he tells his brother-in-law, Paulie, he'll always wonder what would've happened.

Once ESPN airs the computer simulation, Dixon's promoters can't resist.

Why not have an exhibition fight with Balboa?

You have to ask Tarver about the basement. You have to ask whether he did a double-take when he read those parts of the script, whether he got butterflies when he saw those scenes in the screening room.

``Yes, definitely. It's not about the money now. It's not about the fame; it's about what's in me,'' he said. ``I need to find out how great can I be.

``That's the challenge I've put before myself.''

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Photo:

(color) Antonio Tarver, 38, assumes a boxer's stance with Sylvester Stallone at the premiere of ``Rocky Balboa.''

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images