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I walked into the Prudential Center in
Newark, NJ, to see the IBF Bantamweight
and Cruiserweight Championship fights,
without any expectations of seeing a great
fight or an inspiring atmosphere. Even
though I was about to see the first
championship boxing event held in Newark
since 1948, I was not expecting anything
spectacular or historic. And with all the
struggles that the sport of boxing has
endured over the past 15 years, how could
I not be so pessimistic? The sport is
dying in the eyes of the casual fan. Many
have defected to the ever-growing world of
mixed-martial arts. Even the most
passionate boxing enthusiast, and even the
boxers themselves, are very concerned
about the future of their beloved sport.
But in the right circumstances, often when
you least expect it, boxing can still pack
a major punch!
This event was not on pay-per-view or
HBO. Boxing fans did not have to shell out
extra money to watch the fight on
television. Instead they were allowed to
watch two championship fights on a regular
cable channel, the Versus Network. Don
King Productions co-promoted the event
with the New Jersey-based promotion
company Main Events. So I thought to
myself, "If Don King shows his face
tonight, maybe something entertaining
would happen after all."
The first championship bout on the bill
was the IFC Bantamweight Championship
between the incumbent champ Joseph Agbeko,
from Ghana, and the number one challenger
William Gonzalez, a southpaw from
Nicaragua. The two men displayed 12 rounds
of speed and tactics that make
smaller-weight fights so exciting. It was
one of the closest battles I had ever
seen, and the judges agreed with me, as
one judge scored the fight even while the
other two gave a narrow victory to Agbeko,
as he retained his belt.
After that 12-round decision, next up
were the "big boys." The IBF Cruiserweight
Championship was to be fought between
incumbent champ Steve "U.S.S." Cunningham,
from Philadelphia, and the number one
challenger Tomasz Adamek, who represented
his native Poland. Cunningham and Adamek
reminded everyone in the arena why bouts
between the "big boys" can be so thrilling
to watch. Both fighters provided a genuine
two-way slugfest. While Adamek displayed a
"brass chin," Cunningham struggled with
his foot-work and suffered three
knockdowns as he lost his legs beneath the
punishment of Adamek's hard blows. This
would prove to be the difference, as the
fight reach a climactic 12-round decision.
One judge sided with Cunningham, probably
due to the fact that he scored a higher
percentage of landed punches, but the
other two judges gave the fight to the
resilient Adamek, and thus gave him the
Cruiserweight Championship Belt.
Versus boasted that the
Adamek-Cunningham battle was the "fight of
the year," and very few writers in the
room disputed this claim. Of the
top-of-my-head only the July fight between
Margarito and Cotto could compare when it
comes to the excitement generated by
aggressive hard-hitting action. After the
disappointing bout between De La Hoya and
Pacquaio, on HBO Pay-Per-View, less than a
week prior, Versus swooped in and
delivered a "diamond-in-the-rough" for the
casual fan flipping through cable channels
that night. All the writers and promoters
were clamoring for a re-match. Cunningham
and Adamek both hoped, behind the podium,
that this fight would be great for boxing.
From what I witnessed that night, I cannot
argue that it was anything less than that.
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Alex Ginebra
Sportswriter/Product Manager for
Boxeo Mundial
Alex's passion for the sport of boxing
began at the age of eight when he attended
a youth program at the Downtown Athletic
Club. There he was fitted for the first
time with boxing gloves and put into the
ring to spar with other members. He was
given the nickname "Mad Dog" by his boxing
instructor and went on to win the medal
for Youth Boxer of the Year. Eventually
Mad Dog's boxing career did not extend
very far beyond the DACC, but his love for
the sport never waned. He went on to
pursue his studies at Syracuse University
and Monmouth University, and helped cover
both sports programs for the school
newspapers. He ended up pursuing careers
in acting, music and business, but always
kept the door open to the field of sports
journalism. He ended up finding a great
opportunity when he joined the marketing
staff at the Mundial Group. The Mundial
Group, publishers of Fútbol
Mundial, Béisbol Mundial, and Boxeo
Mundial, boasts the largest circulation of
Spanish-language sports magazines in the
United States.
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