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On December 11 the newly built
Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey
was christened with a boxing classic.
Steve Cunningham put his IBF cruiserweight
championship belt on the line against
number one challenger Tomasz Adamek. After
12 grueling rounds of amazing action in
which both fighters left every single
ounce of their energy in the ring it was
Adamek prevailing by split decision.
However, it was Cunningham who was the
aggressor through-out the bout, firing
more punches but only to have them
absorbed by the steel chin of Adamek. At
points when it appeared that Adamek was
wilting to the Cunningham punishment, he
would dig deep and find away to land shots
of his own, three of those shots landed
Cunningham to the canvas. Cunningham
immediately got up after each knockdown
which occurred in the second, forth and
eighth rounds. As Cunningham would say
afterwards "All the knockdowns were flash
knockdowns to me. I was not really hurt"
In the fourth round in particular it
looked like the champ was going to put
Adamek away. Cunningham was demolishing
Adamek with an onslaught of blows for the
first two minutes or so of the round then
with twenty second left Adamek roared
backed and nailed Cunningham with a shot
sending him to the canvas. The fight had
the same theme all the way until the final
bell.
As soon as the final bell sounded the
first thought that I had was when will the
rematch take place. Boxing fans should not
have to wait more than the required time
for these two cruiserweight gladiators to
climb through the ropes and do it again.
Very few survive three knockdowns and
are able to finish the bout let alone
receive a favorable decision from the
judges. In this case many experts believed
that Cunningham' who threw more punches
and connected more frequently was
deserving of at least a draw. The judges
felt differently with only one of the
three giving the nod to Cunningham. Judge
Clark Sammartino scored the bout 114
&endash; 112 for Cunningham, while John
Stewart had it 116 -110 and Shafeeq
Rashada 115-112 for Adamek.
As the dust settled and the massive
amount of Polish fans that were in
attendance to cheer on their new champion
emptied the Rock, both fighters were
greeting the press in the post fight
conference room. This post fight
conference had a tune to it, even before
Cunningham who was first to speak could
utter a word the hundred or so media in
attendance shouted REMATCH, REMATCH. That
remained the constant during the
conference and Cunningham without
hesitation stated that is exactly what he
wants. On the other hand Adamek was non
committal.
A week has gone by now and all the
reports have been printed, each boxing
expert had the fight scored within one
point either way and all agreed that an
immediate rematch needs to happen. Many
went further to say that this was the
fight of the year. One thing is for sure
USS Cunningham already has the gloves
laced and is ready to go. Now it's up to
Adamek and the powers to be to give the
fans what they want to see now Cunningham
&endash; Adamek II.
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