By William Mackay: Former IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (24-3, 12 KO’s) meets up with IBF cruiserweight champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez (25-1, 13 KO’s) for their International Boxing Federation ordered rematch tonight at the Fraport Arena in Frankfurt, Germany.

Cunningham lost to Hernandez by a 6th round technical decision last October in a fight in which Hernandez sustained a cut over his right eye from a headbutt. The cut led to the ringside doctor halting the fight after the 6th after Hernandez’s trainer asked the referee to examine the cut, who in term had the ringside doctor examine it.

Upon appeal, the IBF ruled that a rematch was needed because the cut wasn’t that bad. At the stoppage, Hernandez had a lead on two of the judges’ scorecards but Cunningham was clearly coming on and taking over the fight. To be sure, there was still a lot of time left in the fight for Hernandez to turn things around, but it looked like he was tired and scared in the 5th and 6th rounds.

The timing for the stoppage played heavily in Hernandez’s favor, because he looked completely stressed out from getting hit with some big shots from Cunningham. The cut looked small and never really bled much. It just looked like a fighter that had met his match and needed the fight to be stopped while he had a small lead in order to preserve the victory.
I’m not precisely sure that Cunningham will be given a victory tonight unless he does something extraordinary like scoring a knockout or put in a multiple knockdown performance against Hernandez.

I think it’s possible if he goes after Hernandez the way that former cruiserweight champion Wayne Braithwaite did in his TKO win over Hernandez. Cunningham can’t respect Hernandez because this allows him to fight at a slow pace to where he can conserve his energy. Cunningham has to make Hernandez fight hard and use up his fuel quickly. I’d say by the 5th, Hernandez will on his way to losing his International Boxing Federation strap