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Versus Fight Night Live Recap

December 11, 2008

Prudential Center-Newark, New Jersey

The Ring/IBF Cruiserweight (200 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Steve Cunningham (21-1, 11 KO's, 197 pounds) (c) vs. Tomasz Adamek (35-1, 24 KO's, 198 pounds)

The Ring Championship is currently vacant. A vacant Ring Championship can only be filled by a match between The Ring's number 1 contender in the weight class and its number 2 or 3 contender in the weight class. The previous champion was David Haye, who vacated the title to move to heavyweight.

Cunningham took the IBF title from Krzysztof Wlodarczyk via 12-round majority decision on May 26, 2007 at Spodek in Katowice, Poland. That was an immediate rematch of a controversial 12-round split decision Cunningham had lost to Wlodzarczyk on November 25, 2006 at Towar Sport Hall in Warsaw, Poland. Cunningham is making his second defense of this title.

Cunningham began his amateur career as part of the United States Navy's boxing team. He went on to become the Navy's top boxer at 178 pounds. The highlight of Cunningham's amateur career was when he captured the 1998 National Golden Gloves Championship at 178 pounds.

The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native is a natural 200-pounder. All of his matches have been at this weight class. Cunningham has been somewhat critical of other boxers that have used the 200-pound weight class as a stepping-stone to the heavyweight class.

Cunningham's last match was a technical knockout over the then undefeated Marco Huck at 1:56 of round 12 on December 29, 2007 at Seidensticker Halle in Germany.

Cunningham is The Ring's number 1 contender to their vacant championship at 200 pounds.

Adamek boxed the majority of his early career at 175 pounds. He won a title at 175 pounds, before losing the belt in a wide 12-round unanimous decision to Chad Dawson on February 3, 2007 at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida. Following the loss, Adamek said that he was drained byan extreme weight cut to make 175 pounds and could no longer be effective at that weight class.

On June 9, 2007, Adamek had gained 23.75 pounds to challenge for a fringe 200-pound title. That night, Adamek Luis Andres Pineda via technical knockout in round 7 at Spodek in his native Poland.

Adamek's last match was technical knockout when Gomez failed to answer the bell to start round 7 on July 11, 2008 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois.

Adamek is The Ring's number 2 contender at 200 pounds.

Both boxers are 32-years-old. Cunningham has the height advantage standing 6' 3" tall, while Adamek stands 6' 1.5" tall. The American has a huge reach advantage with a 82" wingspan compared to the 75" wingspan of Adamek. Neither boxers unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, both boxers are naturally 200 pounds and should be roughly the same weight in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

The huge Polish-American population in the area have made Adamek the vocal crowd favorite. Cunningham, the American champion, is being vociferously booed versus a foreigner that was born behind the Iron Curtain. WWE and TNA might want to pay attention to this. The hostility of this crowd toward the American is incredible. There are horns blowing and chants for Adamek. Fans are painted in red and white, the color of the Polish flag, and wearing silly soccer hats. The flags and scarfs that people would wear to watch the Polish national soccer team are everywhere in the arena. Apparently, the Prudential Center was silently annexedby Poland for tonight.

The home areas of the judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are not announced. The referee is Earl Morton.

Very close round 1 that Cunningham barely wins, 10-9. This crowd is still being very loud cheering on the Pole. This match has a rare big match feel for a Versus event. Adamek lands a left hook that sends Cunningham to the ground with less then 1 second to go in round 2. The bell rang to end the round as Cunningham was on his way down, but had yet to hit the canvas. That is the second time Cunningham has been knocked down in his pro career. Versus went to a commercial while the referee was counting! However, Cunningham had already made his feet at what appeared to be the count of 4 and should be able to continue. Round 2 goes to Adamek, 10-8. This is a great match. The crowd is going insane. The noise in the Prudential Center could be confused with that of a soccer stadium in Poland. In round 3, Cunningham lands more punches to take the round, 10-9. After 3 rounds the match is even on my scorecard, 28-28.

Cunningham was dominating Adamek in round 4 and had the Pole badly hurt in round 4. The American was on the way to taking the round huge and without a knockdown was probably going to win it, 10-8. However, Adamek landed a right hand out of nowhere to drop Cunningham to the mat with 29 seconds to go in round 4. This caused the Polish-American crowd to startlosing their minds screaming at the sudden change in momentum. Cunningham successfully answers the referees count to continue with 17 seconds to go in the round. However, Cunningham is still pretty shaky and may not make it out of this round. Round 4 is probably the second best round of the year, behind round 1 of Kendall Holt vs. Ricardo Torres II. Adamek was dominated for so much of round 4, that despite scoring the knockdown he only wins round 4, 10-9. This match is great and a must watch on replay. The announcers are starting to loose their voices screaming in excitement at what a great night of boxing this has been. Adamek may have won a great round 5, 10-9. This match transcends scorecards, because neither boxer deserves to lose this match. This is starting to rival Israel Vazquez vs. Rafael Marquez III. Round 6 is a slower round that Cunningham wins, 10-9. This crowd is so great that even relatively slow rounds seem amazing. After 6 rounds, Adamek leads on my scorecard, 57-56.

Cunningham wins round 7 solidly, 10-9. The American appeared to hit Adamek with some heavy power shots in round 7, but the Pole no sold all of the hard punches to his faces. In round 8, Adamek had Cunningham badly hurt with a left hand. Adamek followed up dropping the American to the canvas with a right hand with 56 seconds to go in round 8. A frustrated Cunningham bounces right back up off the ground and easily answers the referees 8-count with 46 seconds to go in the round. Cunningham looks at his wife in the crowd and goes back into action. Adamek is unable to finish the badly hurt Cunningham in round 8. That is despite the fact the American tried to slug out the final seconds of the round with the stronger Adamek. Adamek wins round 8 big, 10-8. Round 9 is very close and Cunningham may have won it by being busier, 10-9. After 9 rounds, Adamek leads on my scorecard, 85-84.

Cunningham takes round 10, 10-9. To start round 11, there is some swelling around the left eye of Adamek. The swelling is from Cunningham landing repeated hard right hands to the area. Cunningham wins round 11, 10-9. Adamek appears to be running out of gas and that is allowing Cunningham to win the last few rounds. Earlier, Adamek was coming forward and cutting off the ring on Cunningham. That was negating Cunningham's reach advantage and turning the match into a slugfest that the Pole was winning. Now, the match is being contested at distance, where Cunningham can consistently land his left jab and straight right hand to win rounds. With 15 seconds to go the crowd, who had not been quiet the entire match, stood up as one and gave both boxers a standing ovation past the bell for a job well done. Cunningham wins round 12, 10-9. That gives Cunningham the match on my scorecard, 114-112.

It is taking a long time to add up the scorecards. The final decision from Joe Antonacci is that the judges have scored this match: 114-112 for Cunningham, 116-110 for Adamek, and 115-112 for the winner and now IBF and The Ring Cruiserweight Champion of the World, Tomasz "Goral" Adamek. The win moves Adamek to 36-1 with 24 wins coming by way of knockout.

The final CompuBox numbers have Adamek landing 186 of the 480 total punches he threw, for a 39% total connect percentage. Cunningham landed 205 of the 690 total punches he threw, for a 30% total connect percentage.

Adamek said in his post match interview that his promoter would decide on a rematch and that he may have a mandatory contender to face. (This is an approximation of what Adamek was saying.Adamek's English is not very good and he did not use a translator so part of this is a guess.)

Cunningham said in his post match interview that he wants a rematch.The American was booed during his interview, but mostly whistled at by this uniquely great crowd.

Adamek is now officially the best boxer in the world at 200 pounds. He showed some stamina problems at the end of the match, but otherwise he was great in this match. Adamek showed an apparently iron chin and that he can draw a lot of fans. A hypothetical match between Adamek and David Haye could be great. However, that match appears unlikely to happen for a while at least. It would be absurd for Adamek to not face Cunningham in an immediate rematch. It is unlikely there is a match available that could pay more then a rematch with Cunningham. This match was great and these 2 boxers seem perfectly matched for each other. Adamek should face Cunningham again in the spring.

Cunningham made some strategic mistakes in this match. The American should have boxed more instead of trying to slug it out with the stronger boxer. However, Cunningham too was great in this match. Cunningham should get an immediate rematch with Adamek to be held at this same venue. The result could be different next time, but the match should still be great.

This event should be replayed in the coming weeks and is a must watch. The Adamek-Cunningham match was 1 of the top 5 matches of the year. It is not the match of the year, because the work rate of the boxers fell off in the final few rounds, which is a small criticism of an excellent match. The crowd for this event was tremendous. Altogether, this was one of the best shows all year.