Fighter of the Year in Boxing Speaks Out


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Fighter of the Year in Boxing Speaks Out

By Media report on DoghouseBoxing (Oct 23, 2008) DoghouseBoxing.com

The ‘City of Brotherly Love’ lived up to it’s name when Philadelphia’s boxing elite and the media turned out in force to honour one of their own - Philadelphia’s brightest star and only current boxing World Champion, Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham.

Such luminaries from the local scene as Russell Peltz, Percy (Buster) Custus, Prince Badi Ajamu, ‘Fast’ Eddie Chambers, Bernard Fernandez, John DiSanto and many, many more joined Don King and Kathy

Duva at a packed World Cafe Live for a press conference for his upcoming world title defense against Tomasz Adamek as well as to see Steve awarded the prestigious ‘Briscoe’ award for Fighter of the Year 2007.

Prior to the award ceremony promoters Don King and Kathy Duva spoke of the historic championship boxing event at the Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey on the 11th December, when Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham defends his coveted International Boxing Federation Cruiserweight World Champion Title against Polish contenderTomasz Adamek. The last time a world championship boxing match took place in Newark, N.J, was in 1948 when Tony Zale and the legendary Rocky Graziano fought for the Middleweight Championship of the World.

At the end of an epic, forty minute plus speech, an exuberant Don King introduced the reigning champion to raptuous applause. Steve, who was clearly enjoying every moment of his day, took a moment to survey the sea of faces and cameras in front of him before saying “First of all I do this in Jesus’ name. That’s why I do what I do. Secondly team ‘USS’ Cunningham is not just ‘USS’ Cunningham. It’s my wife and manager, my trainers, my family, Don King Productions. If we weren’t a team I wouldn’t be able to go overseas and fight or do what we do here in America and become world champion.

It’s more than an honor, it’s a privilege to fight here at home. It’s been so long since I fought in America. This is a hard fight. Tomasz is a former world champion with a great record, 35-1, I’m not sleeping on this one. It’s the hardest fight of my career. I’m going to train accordingly, act accordingly and be victorious...Accordingly. That’s my game plan, I know he’s going to want to get in there and do his thing but I’ve got to force my rules.

Lots of people didn’t know me in Philly. I started boxing at 19 years old in the United States Navy. Traveled the world, fought as an amateur and became national champion in under twenty amateur fights. God wanted me to do this, I totally believe I was created to do this for God’s glory, that’s why I do it. That’s what people face when they come up against me.

Now I’m professional, this is what I do to make a living, but I would still do this even for the same money I was paid in the Navy or when I worked at the Airport in Atlanta. This is what I was built to do. I do it well, I want to be the greatest of all time, I want to be the best that ever did this. I’m going to keep striving for that.

This is my first fight in eleven months and to those people who’ve been blaming Don (King), I’m coming to bat right now, it’s not Don, it’s been these fighters who don’t want to step up to the plate. You think that when you’ve got a belt that guys are going to want to fight you for it, but they don’t, They don’t want to fight for the Championship, they just want to get paid for easy fights. Mr King knows the worth of these fighters, we know the worth of these fighters. Jean-Marc Mormeck from France for instance, we told him we would go to France. He shut it down, he wanted to get paid more than I was getting paid and I’m world champion. We told Enzo Macranelli that we would go to England, they wanted to underpay. They wanted to pay me less than I was paid as a contender to go over there. David Haye, he moved to another division and who can blame him when he goes up to heavyweight just to make the money. That’s three fights right there that are lost to me.

But I’m ready, my gym’s here right now and they can atest that I am always there at Shuler’s gym. They see me there everyday and that’s no lie. I take about a week off after a fight and then I’m right back in the gym. This is what I do. This my life, It’s my livelihood.

It’s so amazing. The fight is so close to home, twenty bucks can get you to the fight and back. It’s located at a beautiful spot. I want to thank The Prudential Center for hosting and I want to thank Versus for putting it on TV. The cruiserweight division doesn’t get a lot of exposure which is a problem. It has some awesome fighters like me and Tomasz Adamek. All the other guys like, Enzo, Braithwaite. It’s a beautiful division. Yet we have the major networks HBO, Showtime showing just a handful of the same guys over and over. That’s a problem for the sport. They should put on more interesting fights and not just the same old guys. They should do their homework. You know, this guys a champ, this guys a contender, man this is an interesting fight, let’s give it a shot. Then we’ll have better
boxing for the people. I think it’s great that Versus is stepping up and working with Don King and Kathy Duva to do just this.

Come December the 11th I hope to be IBF Champion still. I want to make Philadelphia proud. Bernard Hopkins has made us proud and I want to as well. I want to keep the Philly legendary tradition going. Philadelphia’s in my heart. I have Philadelphia with me every time I beat my opponents. I went to Germany, Philly was with me. I went to Poland twice, Philly was with me. I went to South Africa and Philly was with me. It’s in my heart. It’s something in the air out here. I’m breathing that air in deep. So come December 11th you’re going to see Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham IBF Champion...Still.”

Following a long standing ovation for the man of the moment, John DiSanto editor of phillyboxinghistory.com and creator of the ‘Briscoe’ awards took to the podium and after a brief introduction said. “Tonight the Phillies start their quest for a World Championship. Each time one of Philly’s franchise teams is in this position I always hear the same thing. ‘It’s so long since Philly has had a champion.’ It makes me crazy and I always take the opportunity to disagree with them as Philadelphia has had a lot of World Champions. For a start Bernard Hopkins was World Champion for the best part of 10 years and just last year our own Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham won the IBF Cruiserweight World Title. And as Steve and Don had said he won it and defended it away from home. He’s a great addition to that long list of Philadelphia champions and It’s a great honor to be here and to present Steve the ‘Briscoe’ for Fighter of the Year 2007”

The fighting brothers of the late great Philadelphia boxing legend Tyrone Everett, former jr. welterweight contender and title challenger Mike Everett and Eddie Everett, stepped up on the stage and presented Steve with the award to yet another standing ovation.

Last word on the day has to go to Steve’s wife and manager, Livvy. “I keep welling up. It’s beautiful to see so many people turn out here for Steve.”

The International Boxing Federation World Cruiserweight Championship Title Fight between Champion, Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham and challenger, Tomasz ‘Polish Warrior’ Adamek is co-promoted by Kathy Duva’s Main Events and Don King Productions and takes place at The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Thursday December 11th 2008.

Tickets priced at $303, $153, $78, $53, $38 are on sale now and can be purchased at The Prudential Center box office or by calling TicketMaster on 201-507-8900.