Munroe Defeats Martinez; Cunningham Praises Adamek’s Victory – News

By Boxing News - 03/02/2009 - Comments

munroe35245234Friday night at the Metrodome in Barnsley, England, promoter Frank Maloney put on a fight card headlined by European super bantam champion Rendall Munroe’s dangerous defense against Kiko Martinez in a rematch. Martinez ruthlessly attacked the southpaw champion in the early rounds, forcing Munroe to weather the storm and bide his time until the hard punching Spaniard started to slow down.

After taking the best the former European titlist could dish out, Munroe came to life and began to prove his superiority in brutal fashion.

The bigger Munroe forced his challenger onto the back foot behind a campaign of energy sapping body shots before punishing Martinez with sizzling combinations from both hands.

Martinez spent the last two frames on the ropes where he was hammered into a defensive shell and showed tremendous toughness just to finish the fight on his feet.

Munroe, rated in the top 10 by the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO, won the scorecards 116-113, 116-112 and 118-110, retaining his European title for the fourth time and improving to 18-1 (8), while Martinez loses his second bout, both to Munroe, falling to 20-2 (15).

In the chief support bout, blazingly fast Commonwealth light welter champ Ajose Olusegun, 26-0 (13), turned back the aspirations of English Champion Scott Haywood, 19-3 (4), beating Haywood to the punch throughout the contest and stopping the lanky Derby man in the seventh round.

WBC number 6 ranked London southpaw Olusegun keeps his hopes alive of challenge the winner of the upcoming Timothy Bradley vs. Kendall Holt light welterweight title unification bout.

Welshman Gary Buckland, 15-1 (5), regained the vacant Celtic lightweight title with a thrilling win over Scotland’s former Commonwealth super feather titlist Craig Docherty, 22-5-1 (9), sweeping the referee’s card 100-90 after ten rounds.

2008 Olympic Bronze Medallist Tony Jeffries made a superb start to his professional career by wiping out Belarus native Aliaksander Vayavoda, 5-13-1 (3), in short order, stopping the journeyman at 2:42 of the first round at super middleweight.

Jeffries wasted no time dismantling the import from Minsk, displaying the kind of form that will take him far up the ladder in the highly competitive 168 pound division.

Irish super bantamweight titlist Paul Hyland, 14-1 (4), overcame iron-chinned Ukrainian Nikita Lukin, 8-17-2 (2), in a six round firefight won by the Dublin stylist 58-57. 24 year old Hyland could challenge European bantamweight champion Ian Napa before the year is out.

A brace of four round bouts were also on the bill featuring the kind of competitive matchmaking promoter Maloney is famous for.

Light welter Dave Ryan, 8-1 (1), put the first loss to the record of Jamie Way, 8-1 (1), taking the contest on points, 40-37, while towering lightweight Tyrone Nurse, 6-0 (0), stayed on track with a 40-36 points verdict over teak tough veteran Baz Carey, 11-40-4 (3).

Bantamweight Ross Burkinshaw, 5-1-2 (3), and super bantam Mike Robinson, 4-0-1 (0), went to war and came out with a draw after four furious rounds and super feather Lee Selby, 3-0 (0), defeated Craig Johnson, 9-4 (0), by a mark of 39-37.

Sky Sports provided television coverage of the marquee events.

Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham Praises Tomasz Adamek’s Knockout Victory

Former IBF Champion, Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham was ringside at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Friday night supporting his former foe, current champ, Tomasz ‘Goral’ Adamek, when he faced Kronk fighter Johnathon Banks from Detroit in the first defense of the IBF title.

Adamek secured the IBF and Ring Magazine Cruiserweight World titles on December 11th ‘08 with a close split-decision win over the then champion, ‘USS’ Cunningham, in one of the greatest Cruiserweight battles of all time. The fight had it all, spectacular non-stop action, drama and three knockdowns and was rightly nominated as “Fight of the Year” candidate.

‘USS’ Cunningham, who later this year is to face former WBC title holder, Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite, in an IBF title eliminator to earn the rematch with Adamek he so eagerly desires, was just as fanatical in his
support for the Champion as were the Polish fans that packed the arena.

After Adamek successfully defended his title by knocking his previously unbeaten opponent out in the eighth round, ‘USS’ Cunningham, still clutching the Polish flag which he waved enthusiasticly throughout the fight, said. “It was a very good win for Adamek. Banks was doing good the first four rounds, then he shut down in the fifth and Adamek stepped up and got him out of there.

Polish fans are awesome, it was a great crowd.

I want the rematch more than any other fight out there, so I’m going to do what I have to do to get it. And that is to fight and beat Braithwaite.”

On the subject of the desired rematch, it was recently announced that the Adamek-Cunningham II campaign website – www.wewantarematch.com – has broken the 250,000 visitors milestone since it’s inception just two months ago.

Don King Productions are expected to announce the date and venue for Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham vs. Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite in the very near future.

Watch this space…



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