FURY – CUNNINGHAM
APRIL 20th on NBC at THE THEATER AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
Explosive 6’9″ heavyweight contender and former unbeaten, Irish, Commonwealth and British Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury, 20-0, 14 KO’s, will make his New York debut on Saturday afternoon, April 20th when he takes on former cruiserweight World Champion Steve USS Cunningham, 25-5, 12 KO’s, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
This fight is an official IBF Heavyweight Voluntary Eliminator fight for the #2 position between #9, Tyson Fury and #12, Steve Cunningham. The winner will become #2 and must meet #1 or the leading available contender to establish the mandatory challenger for Heavyweight King Wladimir Klitschko. The fight will be broadcast at 4PM ET on NBC as a special 2 hour afternoon presentation of NBC Sports Fight Night.
“Cunningham’s got all the tools; a former World Champion, good fighter, he’s got a lot of skill. I’m looking to put on a devastating performance; the best of my career to date.” said Fury. “I’m absolutely ecstatic to be fighting at Madison Square Garden; it goes back in history and I can’t wait to put my name with a long list of Champions who have fought there – I’m a historian of boxing myself so this is definitely the pinnacle of my career so far.”
Mick Hennessy, Hennessy Sports CEO, said, “I’m very proud to say that Tyson Fury’s American debut is taking place at Madison Square Garden, New York, this is a dream debut in the US for Tyson as this fight is also being shown live on network TV (NBC). It just doesn’t get any better than this.
Steve Cunningham is ecstatic, “I’m looking forward to getting back in the ring on April 20th to face Fury. For the first time in my career I have a guy coming to my country to face me. I am certain he’s never faced a fighter like me.” He added, “What an amazing opportunity to fight in historic Madison Square Garden and return to NBC again. I am prepared to fight a great fight and come out with a victory.”
Kathy Duva, Main Events CEO, “Giving Steve the opportunity to fight on NBC again – in a bigger venue for another shot at the #2 position in the IBF – after his controversial decision loss to Tomasz Adamek in December is what Main Events and Fight Night are all about.’ Duva added, “Steve put on a fantastic performance against Adamek and deserves to be rewarded with this fight. We also get to introduce Tyson Fury, a young heavyweight contender, to the American public in a true crossroads match.”
Tickets to the bout, starting at $25, will go on sale next week. Details to follow. The fight is promoted by Hennessy Sports and Main Events.
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.
