By Scott Gilfoid: After all the talking that unbeaten British heavyweight Tyson Fury (20-0, 14 KO’s) has done about the Klitschko brothers being bad for boxing, Fury will be facing 36-year-old former IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (25-5, 12 KO’s) on April 20th at a venue still to be determined in New York.
This is Fury’s big named opponent. I can’t say impressed at all. Cunningham, #12 IBF, has lost three out of his last four fights, and not looked impressively offensively.
There are some boxing fans who think Cunningham should have gotten a decision win over 36-year-old Tomasz Adamek in their fight last December, but I’m not one of them. Cunningham just ran around the ring all night, throwing jabs and getting out-worked. Cunningham didn’t throw enough punches in that fight and he deserved to lose the fight.
Cunningham looks good, but he doesn’t throw enough punches, and he doesn’t have the size to do anything at heavyweight. What his performance against Adamek really showed was how much Adamek, a former cruiserweight himself, has gone downhill since his 10th round stoppage loss to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in 2011. Adamek put on weight since then, and he’s just slow as heck and looks terrible.
Fury, #4 WBC, #6 WBO, will probably beat Cunningham but the victory won’t prove anything other than the fact that he can beat a small 205 pound heavyweight with three losses in his last four fights. This is the kind of soft match-making that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing for Fury.
They pick out a name like Kevin Johnson or Cunningham, but it’s late in their career when they’re not fighting on the same level that they once were. We’re not seeing Fury face relevant contenders. Cunningham is an unproven fringe contender, and it’s not tough fight for Fury because he’s too small.
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