By Ian Aldous: On February 4th, Steve Cunningham (24-3) faces Yoan Pablo Hernandez (25-1) in a rematch for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and Ring magazine World cruiserweight title belts in Fraport Arena, Frankfurt, Germany. This week Steve took the time to look ahead to the rematch and reflect on the controversial first fight with Hernandez.

First of all, please give us your thoughts going into the rematch.

SC “My real thoughts are that he shouldn’t be recognized as the IBF champion. He didn’t beat me, he is a good fighter, you know, he’s a decent fighter. I just don’t think he should be recognized as the IBF champion right now. That’s basically it!”

How much did you learn from the first fight and did you feel that you were starting to box your way back in to the fight?

SC “I mean, once you’re in there with a guy like me, you know I pick up on a guy real fast, not many can snap back from a knockdown like that and take control of the fight. Basically it gave me a blueprint for this rematch, so with the situation happening the way it did, I did feel that I was winning the fight even with the knockdown. We were still going to work and doing the work and that’s what we do, so the knockdown didn’t really change the game plan and we just stayed with the game plan.”

How highly do you rate Hernandez and do you see him as the top cruiserweight in the World other than yourself?

SC “No, I do not. That’s one of the issues I have right now with the sanctioning bodies or the ranking entities, you got The Ring, boxrec.com, you got all these sanctioning bodies and here he is going into the fight as no.1 cruiserweight in the World on boxrec and The Ring. And the situation happened the way it did, the fight was stopped prematurely, it was stopped unfairly, it was wrongdoing on the doctor’s part, so the IBF recognized it and they awarded the immediate rematch. My thing is that if you see the foul play being done and I’m grateful to the IBF for giving me that (rematch) but if foul play was involved and my belt was taken because of foul play, I should still have my belt. You know The Ring ratings moved him up to no.1, boxrec moved him up to no.1 and it’s like woah! He shouldn’t be in this position. He won the fight on underhanded circumstances, the fight was stopped on a crazy situation, just like you’ve seen with the fight between (Dereck) Chisora and Robert (Helenius), everybody knows that Chisora won that fight but the rankings are gonna show that when people look back in 10-15 years from now the rankings are gonna show that Helenius moved up the rankings because he beat Chisora. Now if the rankings and sanctioning bodies say that they’re not gonna respect that shadiness and start doing something about these shady fights, the shadiness is never gonna stop. I don’t respect him as the no.1 in the World, I still believe I’m the best cruiserweight in the World.”

Seven of your last nine fights have been in Europe. How happy are you playing out your career away from home?

SC “I mean, it’s one of those things where when I was a kid I would think about boxing and you would think World champions fought around the World! Becoming a pro and before I started traveling, the saying was that you go overseas and you get robbed. So, nobody wants to get cheated and nobody wants to go outside their country. Me being a cruiserweight in America, cruiserweights are just not interesting to people for some reason, I don’t understand why. So, I have to go where I can to make a living and to get the exposure and Europe provides that. It’s been a good run with Europe and I enjoy it. I talked with Chris Byrd and he said before he retired, he and I’m real close friends, he wished he would’ve signed with a European promoter, boxing in Europe is real different from America.”

Last week on Boxnation TV over here in the UK, Roy Jones Jr. stated that he wants to fight for a cruiserweight World championship before he retires. Could you see yourself maybe giving Roy a shot if you get the win on February 4th?

SC “No, I wouldn’t. I mean I know Roy, we text here and there once in a while, I wouldn’t fight Roy Jones. It’s not worth me fighting him and he’s not the Roy Jones of yesterday. He stands a chance of getting really injured and really hurt. I don’t wanna be the guy that does that to him, Roy Jones is one of the guys I emulated coming up, we love Roy Jones. Of course I would have loved to fight Roy earlier in my career before he started deteriorating but right now I couldn’t put that on my record and feel proud about that right now.”

Yoan Pablo Hernandez vs. Steve Cunningham will air live on Boxnation in the UK on Saturday February 4th. For more information, fight schedule and to subscribe, go to www.boxnation.tv