Steve Cunningham
Steve Cunningham ( born July 15, 1976 in Philadelphia, United States) is an American professional boxer and former IBF cruiserweight champion.
Amateur
Steven Cunningham played about 55 amateur fights with seven defeats. His greatest achievement was winning the National Golden Gloves tournament in 1998 at light heavyweight. In qualifying for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney he failed at the amateur world champion Michael Simms.
Professional career
In October 2000, Cunningham began his professional career. After wins over Sebastian Rothmann and Guillermo Jones, he qualified for an eliminator of the IBF Association against ex - titlist Kelvin Davis, whom he defeated in September 2005 on points and thus won the right to the reigning IBF champion O'Neil Bell Challenge to be allowed. As Bell after winning the unification fight against Jean -Marc Mormeck laid his IBF title, Cunningham punched on November 25, 2006 in Warsaw against Poland Krzysztof Włodarczyk to the now vacant IBF title and lost the duel remains controversial points - two of the judges saw Włodarczyk after twelve rounds just ahead, while the third judge had scored with 11-1 rounds for Cunningham. Then a direct rematch was arranged, the Cunningham won on 25 May 2007 in Katowice on points and thus became the IBF world champion.
In his first title defense, he defeated 29 December 2007 the undefeated Marco Huck in Bielefeld by technical knockout in the twelfth round. Huck's coach Ulli Wegner threw in the towel in the last round, prompting the referee broke off the fight. His next title defense, he played only about a year later, on 11 December 2008 in Newark, United States against Poland Tomasz Adamek. In this duel Cunningham was knocked down in the second, fourth and eighth round and lost the IBF title on points over twelve rounds to Adamek.
Already in his next fight Cunningham was given a new opportunity to qualify for another title shot; He joined on 11 July 2009 in an eliminator of the IBF Association against Wayne Braithwaite and beat the former world champion on points. Since Adamek rise in October 2009 in the heavyweight division and the IBF belt resigned, Cunningham should fight in March 2010 against Matt Godfrey for the vacant title. The battle, however, was canceled at short notice due to financial disputes. In May 2010, Cunningham signed a contract with German promoter Wilfried Sauerland. On 5 June 2010, he won the vacant IBF in Neubrandenburg World Cup against Canadian Troy Ross canceled at the beginning of the fifth round due to a laceration under Ross' left eye.
His first title defense should Cunningham initially in January 2011 contest against the also under contract with Sauerland Serbs Enad Licina. Since the planned for this event as the main fighter middleweight Sebastian Sylvester, however due to illness turned out a few days before the fight date, the entire event was canceled. Cunningham then joined 12 February 2011 in Mülheim an der Ruhr against Licina and won on points over twelve rounds. On October 1, 2011 in Neubrandenburg Cunningham lost his title to Yoan Pablo Hernández. The fight was ' canceled by the referee because of two cut- Hernández injuries after the 6th round on advice of the ringside physician and evaluated. A point in favor of judges evaluated Cunningham, two judges scored the fight in favor of Hernández, who thus won the world title. Even the rematch on February 4, 2012 in Frankfurt am Main, he lost on points after 12 rounds.
In December 2012, he narrowly lost on points against Tomasz Adamek and in April 2013 by co against Tyson Fury.