Boxing Fight of the Year Candidate: Tomasz Adamek Floors Steve Cunningham and takes his Title!

Boxing Fight of the Year Candidate: Tomasz Adamek Floors Steve Cunningham and takes his Title!

By Danny Serratelli at ringside for DoghouseBoxing.com (Dec 15, 2008)

Don King and Main Events teamed up to put on a great event in a top notch boxing facility in the Prudential arena "The Rock" in the Brick City, Newark, New Jersey. This was the first professional boxing show in "The Rock" and the first title fight in the Brick City, Newark, New Jersey since Rocky Graziano fought Tony Zale in Ruppert Stadium back on June 10th, 1948. Newark is a great boxing city that is often overshadowed by Philidelphia and New York, but anyone from the area knows that the Brick City fighters are as tough as they come.

The main event of the evening showcased two fighters who deserve more recognition then they get. In that main event, former WBC light heavy weight champ, Tomasz Adamek, 35-1, 24 KO's won an exciting split decision over IBF cruiserweight champion Steve "USS" Cunningham, 35-1, 24 KO's. The Polish fans were out in the masses. They are great fans who always come out to support Polish-American fighters and add to the excitement if the shows they fight on. Cunningham had his Philadelphia fans make the trip north to Newark as well.

Cunningham controlled most of the action early in the fight, and managed to come back and win some late rounds, but the difference in the fight was power. Adamek dropped Cunningham in the 2nd and again in the 4th late in rounds that Cunningham was winning easily. To top it off Cunningham got dropped in the 8th. Both fighters landed clean punches at times, but while Cunningham tasted the canvass three times, Adamek walked through many shots that appeared to land right on the button.

It helped Adamek that the ring appeared to be very small and Cunningham didn't use his reach advantage as much as he needed to. To Adamek's credit, he also had a lot to do with negating the reach advantage with a lot of pressure. Brickcityboxing / Doghouseboxing saw Cunningham unable to overcome the three 10-8 rounds on the cards and as a result had Adamek ahead 113-112 after 12 rounds. The official judges saw the bout 114-112 Cunningham and 116-110, 115-112 Adamek.

In the co feature of the evening, IBF bantamweight champion Joseph Agbeko, 26-1, 22 KO's won a tough 12 round majority decision over a very live underdog in William Gonzalez, 21-3, 19 KO's to retain his title. Gonzalez's southpaw stance and rhythm appeared to have Agbeko off early in the fight, but Agbeko seemed to get stronger as the fight went on and he got into a groove. He also busted up Gonzalez's face with some cuts throughout that seemed to bother the game Nicaraguan challenger. Gonzalez battled all the way to the end, but in the end it was Agbeko won a close one by the scores of 116-112, 116-112, and 114-114.

Unbeaten junior welterweight Devon Alexander, 17-0, 10 KO's scored a third round TKO over Christopher Fernandez, 15-6-1, 9 KO's. Alexander dropped Fernandez twice in round 2 and the fight was stopped at 3:00 of round three.

Unbeaten Paterson New Jersey based, welterweight Henry Crawford, 20-0-1, 9 KO's beat Maximino Cuevas, 10-9-1, 5 KO's until Cuevas' corner threw in the towel at 1:04 of round two.

Undefeated light welterweight Jeremy Bryan, 9-0, 4 KO's made short work of opponent Khristian Geraci, 4-4-1 when he knocked him down several times en route to a stoppage at 1:26 of the first round.

The fans got their moneys worth on a quality show that was broadcasted by the Versus network. The people of the Brick City left the arena satisfied and eager for another world class professional boxing show back in the arena in the near future.

Danny writes for Doghouse as well as his own website at BrickCityBoxing.
For more from Danny you can also visit: BrickCityBoxing.com/