Fighting Talk From Steve
'USS' Cunningham In First Radio Interview
Since Loss Off Crown
Former IBF cruiserweight world
champion, Steve 'USS' Cunningham, gave his
first radio interview since losing his
crown by split decision after this year's
most exciting and action packed fight, one
that most are calling The Fight Of The
Year, on December 11th to Tomasz 'Goral'
Adamek. Steve returned as a guest of
boxing expert Michael Cassell on his
popular AFB radio show - Philadelphia
Boxing Report.
Steve was particularly thrilled that
his first radio interview was on the show
as the audience is mainly American
military personnel based around the world.
Being a former Navy Aircraft Re-fueler on
both the USS America and the USS
Enterprise he understands the importance
of this particular radio network, as to
many of those based overseas it is their
only link to home news.
From the start of the show Michael made
the point of how spectacular the fight,
broadcast live on Versus, was and how
everybody had been talking about it. He
went on to inform Steve that ESPN, amongst
many broadcasters to do so, made the fight
the lead item on Friday morning and that
even on 'Football Friday' it stayed high
on the discussion list throughout the
afternoon and evening, something, that as
far as he is aware, that had never been
achieved before, even with boxing matches
featuring 'household' names.
He then went on to ask Steve why, as he
was the IBF champion, the fight was in
Adamek's 'backyard' in Newark, New Jersey
and not his home town of Philadelphia, to
which Steve answered. "This wasn't really
an issue, but the powers to be thought it
would be a better spot, for reasons I
don't know why, I live in Philly. You
know, Adamek came from Poland and moved to
Jersey City and there's a huge Polish
Community in New Jersey."
Michael then went on to say how that
was so obvious on the night as the arena
was a sea of red and white and the crowd
cheered anything that Adamek did. Steve
agreed. "Tomasz could have done a
handstand and the crowd would have
cheered. Everything he did they were
screaming and clapping."
Moving on to the subject of the
scoring, Michael said that he felt Steve
had won virtually every round as well as
leading in round two, four and eight until
the knockdowns. Steve responded "Exactly,
round four I was going for the knockdown,
I could smell it so I just kept going but
he wouldn't go down so I backed off, I was
jabbing and he countered and I went down.
I jumped back up, right away, I wasn't
hurt. You know, that should have been
scored a 10-9 round as It was clearly
being a 10-8 round to me until then. That
one point could have made so much
difference.
One of the knockdowns was a slip. I was
wobbling from a good hit but it was a
slip. The ring was still a little wet from
the previous fight as I stepped back I
slipped, it's a shame as I jumped straight
up but my glove touched the canvas.
When we went into this fight we had our
friends and family praying with us, we had
our church praying for us to be victorious
in Jesus' name, that's why I was able to
get up from the knockdowns, they were
totally flash knockdowns, they didn't hurt
me. I put on a great performance, one that
I believe should have been enough to get
me a close decision or at least a draw."
Michael agreed, he then went on to
criticize judge John Stewart from New
Jersey who he said had given a outrageous
score of 116-110 in favor of Adamek. He
then asked Steve why there were two judges
from New Jersey, the other, Shafeeq
Rashada, also scored the bout in favor of
Adamek, to which Steve replied.
"Originally, the excellent Julie Lederman
was supposed to be one of the judges but
for some reason she was replaced." Michael
pointed out that Ms Lederman was
officiating on the Holt vs Hopkins fight
in Atlantic City only two days later, and
questioned the reason for the switch
before going on to state "In my humble
opinion that judge (John Stewart) should
never be allowed to judge a fight again,
That was a disgrace for a better word. He
should be ashamed of himself. Every week
we have a segment on the Philadelphia
Boxing Report called the 'Moron Report'
and he definitely makes the 'Moron Report'
this week."
Throughout the interview Michael stated
that the fight was not only "Fight Of The
Year" but that he had been getting
inundated with calls and e.mails from
friends and his listeners asking when will
there be a rematch. When Michael asked
Steve this as a direct question, Steve
answered. "We hurried up to the press
conference after the fight and the first
thing I asked was if they wanted a
rematch, everyone demanded a rematch.
The fight was a mandatory and as such
Adamek doesn't have to accept a rematch,
it's his prerogative. But a fight like
that demands a rematch. Tomasz made it
clear he'd talk rematch if there was big
money and television. He made it clear,
hey, I don't blame him, he gets the bigger
share, he's the champion now. I know I
want one, I want my belt back.
If anyone that's listening wants a
rematch write or call Showtime and HBO and
tell them you want one as it's up to them
and the promoters working together."
Michael reiterated what is needed to
make a rematch happen and urged listeners
to write and call HBO, Showtime, Don King
and Kathy Duva at Main Events and start
demanding a rematch before thanking Steve
for taking part in the show.
The full interview is available at:
www.philaboxingreport.com/AFBARCHIVES.html
or downloadable version in mp3 format
at:
www.philaboxingreport.com/12142008showsteve.mp3
For news on Steve 'USS' Cunningham -
www.usscunningham.com
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