By Scott Gilfoid: Boxing fans will be interested to know that unbeaten heavyweight contender Tyson Fury (21-0, 15 KO’s) was behind on two of the judges’ scorecards tonight in tied on the third at the time he halted the smaller Steve Cunningham (25-6, 12 KO’s) in the 7th round at Madison Square Garden in New York. Two judges had Cunningham up 57-55, while the third had it 56-56.
Fury didn’t prove that he’s a better fighter tonight than Cunningham. The only thing he proved was that he’s the bigger fighter. Fury was knocked down in the 2nd and getting the worst of it until he was able to use his huge 44 pound weight advantage to manhandle Cunningham from the 5th round on. Fury really roughed Cunningham up from the 5th round, and even lost a point in the 5th for head-butting him.
Fury said “I was hunting him down and boom. I didn’t come here to play any games, even though I played a few in there. I came here to get a knockout. He got me with one and I wanted to get him back double.”
Cunningham gave Fury the only chance he had in the fight by not staying busy enough after knocking Fury down in the 2nd. Fury looked scared of Cunningham and had even started to back up. However, Cunningham didn’t keep throwing punches for some reason and he gave Fury the fight by clinching him and letting him put all his weight on him.
Cunningham should have continued to circle the ring in between his big bombs he was landing on Fury’s chin. Ultimately, I think it came down to Cunningham not having the conditioning needed for him to stay on the move for 12 rounds or even 7 rounds. Cunningham looked looked like he needed to clinch because he couldn’t move without grabbing Fury for rest breaks.
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