By Jason Kim: In a battle between former cruiserweight champions, Steve Cunningham (22-2, 11 KO’s) defeated Wayne Braithwaite (23-4, 19 KO’s) by a 12-round unanimous decision in an International Boxing Federation cruiserweight title Eliminator bout on Saturday night on the under card of the Joseph Agbeko vs. Vic Darchinyan bout at the BankAtlandtic Center, in Sunrise, Florida.
The final judges’ scores were 119-109, 117-111 and 118-110. Cunningham, 32, who came into the fight following a disappointing 12-round split decision loss to Tomas Adamek last year in December, looked much more solid chin-wise against the hard-hitting Braithwaite, taking his biggest shots from him and staying upright for the full 12 rounds.
Staying on his feet had been hard for Cunningham in his fight with Adamek in December, because Cunningham was repeatedly knocked down by Adamek due to Cunningham’s tendency to square up in front of Adamek.
In between the knockdowns, Cunningham was doming the fight with his superior boxing skills over Adamek. On Saturday night, Cunningham continued on from where he left off in the Adamek bout, using his jab and combinations to control the slower Braithwaite.
In the first two rounds, Cunningham needed little other than his jab to dominate Braithwaite, who made it easy for him by constantly loading up with head shot attempts. This allowed Cunningham to pick him off with jabs when Braithwaite would throw big right hands.
Braithwaite was able to land some big shots near the end of the 2nd round, as he waited until Cunningham was close to him to unload with his own bigger shots. Cunningham, however, was more focused on trying to box and outwork the slugger Braithwaite instead of going toe-to-toe with him.
The 3rd round had little action to speak of, but the little bit of action in the round was controlled by Cunningham, who blasted away at Braithwaite with hard left hands and right hooks when in close. Braithwaite only landed a couple of punches during the entire round.
In the 4th and 5th rounds, both fighters spent a lot of time wrestling each other in the clinch. Cunningham got the better of the action in the round, hitting Braithwaite with a flurry of shots early in the 5th round. Cunningham threw a lot of jabs in the round and poured in some nice right hands.
The 6th round continued with Cunningham effectively landing at will with big shots against Braithwaite, who was strangely quiet and not throwing many shots in the round. At the end of the round, Braithwaite landed three good right hands to get Cunningham’s attention.
Braithwaite fought well in the 7th round, throwing a ton of right hands and catching Cunningham with most of them. In the 8th and 9th rounds, Cunningham played it safe, focusing on his jab rather than throwing power shots and taking risks.
Braithwaite came out looking strong in the 10th round, throwing huge shots, missing some but landing quite a few of the big punches. However, Cunningham finished strong by taking the attack to Braithwaite, backing him up and hitting him with good combinations.
In the end, Braithwaite didn’t have the speed or enough power to give Cunningham any real problems. The win for Cunningham puts him right back against IBF cruiserweight champion Tomas Adamek in the near future.
Comments are closed.