Cunningham Talks Haymon Signing, Main Events Parting
Posted by: David P. Greisman on 5/12/2015 .
by David P. Greisman
Last month, Main Events announced that it had released Steve Cunningham prior to the end of his contract, which was soon to expire anyway. Shortly afterward, Cunningham signed with adviser Al Haymon, potentially opening up more opportunities for the former cruiserweight titleholder turned heavyweight.
The release, he said, “wasn’t necessarily so I could get with Al Haymon. We just had an amicable split. Both sides agreed, we wanted to go look other places, see what we could get.”
He spoke highly of his time with Main Events, calling his time there “wonderful” and “beautiful.”
“I saw what Main Events did with other fighters that were kind of in my situation, older fighters that were champions, like Zab Judah, for example. They did a good job with Zab,” Cunningham said in an interview with BoxingScene.com in late April. “They got him back into contention. That appealed to me. And they had the NBC deal. That was great. That was icing on the cake. And I love the way Main Events has more of an at-home feeling. There’s a bunch of women there, but they’re like lions. But this is a business, and sometimes you go different ways. There’s no hard feelings or nothing. Business is business. I pray the best for them, just as they’ve done for us.”
The last fight under his contract with Main Events was a unanimous decision loss to stablemate Vyacheslav Glazkov in March on the undercard to Sergey Kovalev vs. Jean Pascal. Cunningham feels like he was robbed on the scorecards in that bout, just as he was against Tomasz Adamek in a split decision defeat back in December 2012.
“I felt that I was on the short end of some underhanded business, but I’m not saying that was Main Events,” Cunningham said. “There’s a lot of other things that play a part in that machine. You’ve got management. A lot of things that the fans and even some fighters don’t know. Adamek brings a lot of fans. You’ve got the Ukrainian factor with Wladimir [Klitschko] and Glazkov. We do know that something was underhanded. I will say that. I won’t point the finger at Main Events or anybody. There’s no evidence of that.”
The Glazkov loss ended a three-fight winning streak for Cunningham. Before that came a knockout loss to Tyson Fury in April 2013 and the Adamek rematch loss in 2012. He is 28-7 with 13 KOs, but he feels the Haymon signing can bring good things for him.
“He’s got a lot of fighters. He’s got a lot of opportunities. A lot of windows for the world to see you in,” Cunningham said. “I’m just sitting back waiting. … Whatever Al’s got for me to do, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m 38, turning 39, but I feel 21. I feel like I’m getting better and stronger. My performances show that. I’m just ready to continue on until I can’t continue no more.”
http://www.boxingscene.com/cunningham-talks-haymon-signing-main-events-parting--90927
Even though he's much older, glad to see him come over to the winning side, because he's been robbed as of late...especially in his last fight
He should be facing Wilder now instead of Molina anyways. Even though he's 39 years old, he'd still fare better as more of a legit opponent
Posted by: David P. Greisman on 5/12/2015 .
by David P. Greisman
Last month, Main Events announced that it had released Steve Cunningham prior to the end of his contract, which was soon to expire anyway. Shortly afterward, Cunningham signed with adviser Al Haymon, potentially opening up more opportunities for the former cruiserweight titleholder turned heavyweight.
The release, he said, “wasn’t necessarily so I could get with Al Haymon. We just had an amicable split. Both sides agreed, we wanted to go look other places, see what we could get.”
He spoke highly of his time with Main Events, calling his time there “wonderful” and “beautiful.”
“I saw what Main Events did with other fighters that were kind of in my situation, older fighters that were champions, like Zab Judah, for example. They did a good job with Zab,” Cunningham said in an interview with BoxingScene.com in late April. “They got him back into contention. That appealed to me. And they had the NBC deal. That was great. That was icing on the cake. And I love the way Main Events has more of an at-home feeling. There’s a bunch of women there, but they’re like lions. But this is a business, and sometimes you go different ways. There’s no hard feelings or nothing. Business is business. I pray the best for them, just as they’ve done for us.”
The last fight under his contract with Main Events was a unanimous decision loss to stablemate Vyacheslav Glazkov in March on the undercard to Sergey Kovalev vs. Jean Pascal. Cunningham feels like he was robbed on the scorecards in that bout, just as he was against Tomasz Adamek in a split decision defeat back in December 2012.
“I felt that I was on the short end of some underhanded business, but I’m not saying that was Main Events,” Cunningham said. “There’s a lot of other things that play a part in that machine. You’ve got management. A lot of things that the fans and even some fighters don’t know. Adamek brings a lot of fans. You’ve got the Ukrainian factor with Wladimir [Klitschko] and Glazkov. We do know that something was underhanded. I will say that. I won’t point the finger at Main Events or anybody. There’s no evidence of that.”
The Glazkov loss ended a three-fight winning streak for Cunningham. Before that came a knockout loss to Tyson Fury in April 2013 and the Adamek rematch loss in 2012. He is 28-7 with 13 KOs, but he feels the Haymon signing can bring good things for him.
“He’s got a lot of fighters. He’s got a lot of opportunities. A lot of windows for the world to see you in,” Cunningham said. “I’m just sitting back waiting. … Whatever Al’s got for me to do, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m 38, turning 39, but I feel 21. I feel like I’m getting better and stronger. My performances show that. I’m just ready to continue on until I can’t continue no more.”
http://www.boxingscene.com/cunningham-talks-haymon-signing-main-events-parting--90927
Even though he's much older, glad to see him come over to the winning side, because he's been robbed as of late...especially in his last fight
He should be facing Wilder now instead of Molina anyways. Even though he's 39 years old, he'd still fare better as more of a legit opponent
