IBF Cruiserweight Champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez (25-1, 13 KOs) and Steve Cunningham (24-3, 12 KOs) will meet again in Frankfurt on February 4. Hernandez had dethroned his American opponent on October 1, winning a technical decision in Neubrandenburg. The fight was stopped on cuts, with Hernandez ahead on the scorecards after scoring a first-round knockdown. “The rematch will be a real treat for boxing fans,” Team Sauerland General Manager Chris Meyer said. “Hernandez against Cunningham, that´s as good as it gets in the cruiserweight division. Their first fight was a thriller and I am sure the rematch will be even more exciting.”
In the co-featured main event, Enad Licina (21-3, 11 KOs) will face former amateur world champion Alexander Alexeev (22-2, 20 KOs) for the vacant European Cruiserweight Title. European Light Heavyweight Champion Eduard Gutknecht (22-1, 9 KOs) also defends his title against Viacheslav Uzelkov (25-1, 16 KOs).
***Team Cunningham hits Germany***
Two-time world champion Steve “USS” Cunningham (24-3, 12 KOs) has arrived in Frankfurt, Germany. On February 4, the American veteran will face IBF Cruiserweight Champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez (25-1, 13 KOs) in a hotly-anticipated rematch at the Fraport Arena. Cunningham and his team – Naazim Richardson, Mark Osborn, Khalib Whitmore and Jonathan Adderly – landed on Wednesday. On Friday, they paid a special visit to AFN Wiesbaden (American Forces Network). “It´s great to catch up with AFN and connect with my military brothers and sisters,” Cunningham said. “I am ready for a battle with Hernandez on February 4. I am going to tear the title away from him and bring it back to America.”
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
The Cruiserweight division would be more exciting if the fighters boxed one another more often. For example, why did Cunningham not give Troy Ross a rematch, when it truly was a competitive fight. Ross knocked down Cunningham in the fourth round and in my mind was winning the fight. Then 15 seconds later, Cunningham thumbed Ross in the eye and the fight ended when the cut was deemed too severe. And it ended in a TKO win for CUNNINGHAM! Disgusting! I hope Cunningham gets knocked out plain and simple!
Hi Tony, many cruiserweights are hoping he gets dethroned cause the claim he makes very few defenses of the title, so we will see, i agree that all the fighters need to fight each other, and I am saddened that huck is fightking povetkin in a sure loser for him when he could have been uniting vs Guillermo Jones, but we will keep beating the cruiserweight drums on Fightkings, please check out our cruiserweight page – http://original.fightkings.com/cruiserweights, its the only one in boxing, pls visit again
typo, the correct page is http://original.fightkings.com/cruiserweights.htm