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Steve Cunningham, Who Almost Kayoed Tyson Fury, Believes Wilder Will Do It

If you want to call Tyson Fury’s style “Greco-Roman boxing,” that’s probably as good a description as any. Like most exceptionally large heavyweights who dwarf smaller opponents with significant advantages in height, weight and reach, an important element in Fury’s standard fight plan is to initiate multiple clinches, to lean on those figurative Lilliputians until their strength saps and, gasping, they become increasingly vulnerable to standard boxing tactics in the later rounds.
Hey, if it worked for the even more gigantic but far clumsier Nikolai Valuev (50-2, 34 KOs), a two-time WBA heavyweight champion, why shouldn’t it work for the 6-foot-9, 255-pound Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) when the former unified titlist challenges WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) on Dec. 1 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles? At 6’7” Wilder is almost tall enough to look Fury straight in the eye, and his impressive 83-inch reach is nearly a match for Fury’s 85-inch tentacles. But Wilder, who was comparatively lean even at his heaviest-ever official ring weight of 229 pounds, came in at an almost-skinny 214¾ for his most recent defense, in which he had to fight through several scary moments before stopping Luis “King Kong” Ortiz, who outweighed him by 26½ pounds, in the 10th round on March 3 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The differential in heft will be even more pronounced should the free-swinging Wilder find himself wrapped up time and again in Fury’s tactical bear hugs.
But two-time former cruiserweight champion Steve “USS” Cunningham, maybe more than anyone, understands that Fury’s strengths can be at least somewhat negated by the sort of advantages Wilder, an opening-line minus-160 favorite, holds over his hulking rival. Some of Wilder’s attributes are reasonably similar to those of Cunningham, who dropped and hurt Fury in the second round (that’s Fury on the seat of his pants) before being stopped himself in the seventh round of their April 20, 2013, bout at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. But Wilder hits a hell of a lot harder than Cunningham, which is the main reason why Cunningham is picking the Alabamian to finish the demolition job he might have shockingly pulled off 5½ years earlier had he been able to connect with just the right follow-up shot to a clearly buzzed Fury.
“In my fight with Fury, he totally underestimated me and we capitalized on that,” said the 42-year-old Cunningham, who has since dropped back down to cruiserweight and is still presumably active, although he has not fought since losing a 10-round unanimous decision to Andrew Tabiti on Aug. 26, 2017. “I was able to catch him when he was goofing off and playing. Even after he got up and got serious, I was still able to catch him coming in. I’d maneuver to put myself in a better spot to do that.
“So we know Fury can get knocked down with a big shot. I’ve done it.”
He did it despite not being known as a big hitter, but massive power is and has always has been Wilder’s calling card. With a knockout percentage of 97.5 that almost looks like a typographical error, Wilder, the super heavyweight bronze medalist for the United States at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, never goes into any bout expecting it to go the distance. If he hits Fury with the same sort of shot that Cunningham did, it’s a good bet that the big, burly Briton won’t beat the count, and even if he does he might not be able to recover from it as quickly as he did against Cunningham.
“With Fury fighting Wilder, I can’t go against Wilder,” Cunningham said. “I can’t really go against Wilder against any of the top heavyweights, including Anthony Joshua. Why? Because Wilder has that great equalizer, a sledgehammer of a right hand. We all know that once that right hand lands – and it’s going to land at some point in a 12-round fight – the outcome is pretty much a done deal.”
But what about Fury’s frequent clinches, which not only can fatigue the other guy, but frustrate him as well?
“I don’t see Fury’s weight being an issue because Wilder has good movement and he can box better than a lot of people think,” Cunningham continued. “Yeah, I know Deontay can look a little goofy and undisciplined at times, but he hasn’t been made to look like the boxer he’s capable of being. We’ve seen glimpses of it here and there, but he’d probably have to show more of that against Fury until the opening comes to him to deliver that great equalizer. No matter how I size it up, I see Wilder stopping Fury with that right hand. He keeps launching it and launching it and launching it until the big one connects.”
Fury has a back story – uh, make that stories – that has probably made him more recognizable and marketable than his relatively unexciting, albeit victorious, performances merit. He was a preemie as an infant, coming into this world at a little over a pound, making for exceedingly long odds of his even making it to childhood, much less filling out to his current gargantuan dimensions. There is the burden of his being an Irish Traveller, a group that is widely reviled in the United Kingdom but nonetheless holds a certain fascination to the public. And if all that weren’t enough, there is the epic cocaine-and-eating binges that he went on, and now has come back from, after he stunned the boxing world by outpointing long-reigning and lineal champion Wladimir Klitschko on Nov. 28, 2015, in Dusseldorf, Germany. A serial utterer of coarse and controversial quotes who fancies himself a better singer than fighter, Fury is a media darling right up to the time the bell rings and his crackling pre-fight wattage generates less electricity inside the ropes.
But it is a mistake to lump Fury, whose dad named him after Mike Tyson, with the robotic, lumbering and monosyllabic Valuev. He does have a skill set, and one that extends beyond his array of wrestling moves.
“Size doesn’t equate to boxing ability,” said Cunningham, who was up 57-55 on two of the official scorecards and even 56-56 on the other at the time he was knocked out by Fury. “It also doesn’t equate to punching power, not really. To Fury’s credit, he’s pretty athletic for such a big guy and he comes in shape, or at least he did when I was in camp with him (as a sparring partner) and fought him later on. He had a rowing machine and he rowed on it like a maniac. He did other things that were kind of unique. I remember thinking, `Wow, this guy does have a good engine in him,’ so he was capable of going a lot of rounds. If you don’t get him out of there early, he will use that size to wear you down. Because of that, the only two current heavyweights I see who are capable of knocking him out are Wilder and Joshua.
“Him being so much bigger than most of the guys he fights, I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t take a toll on you. Guys who fight Fury now, or who fought Valuev then, would train to be able to better cope with the wrestling and the holding. They’d train to not get in those type situations as often. Before I fought him, I knew Fury liked to lay on opponents. I sparred with big guys in camp for four or five weeks, but they weren’t that big and I just wasn’t able get anybody to really replicate him.
“My plan was to use my legs as much as possible to stay away from him, but I was coming off my second fight with Tomasz Adamek in which I felt I had done enough to easily win on points (Cunningham lost a disputed split decision). So you get it in your mind that, hey, maybe I should just try to knock (Fury) out instead.
“I had my chance. Wilder, I believe, will get his chance as well. Will he put the giant down and out? That’s my pick. But we won’t find out until fight night, will we?”
Bernard Fernandez is the retired boxing writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. He is a five-term former president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, an inductee into the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Atlantic City Boxing Halls of Fame and the recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism and the Barney Nagler Award for Long and Meritorious Service to Boxing.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 320: Women’s Hall of Fame, Heavyweights and More

Many of the best female fighters of all time including Christy Martin, Laila Ali and others are gathering in the glitzy lights of Las Vegas this week.
Several hundred fans including current and former world champions are attending the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, April 4 and 5th at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas.
It’s one of my favorite events.
Where else can you talk to the female pioneers and stars of the 1980s and 1990s?
The last time I attended two years ago, Germany’s super star Regina Halmich spoke to the packed house about her career in boxing. She and Daisy Lang were two female world champions who sold out arenas wherever they fought. The pair of blonde fighters proved that female prizefighting could succeed.
Many times, I debated with promoters who believed women’s boxing could not succeed in the USA. Though it was popular in Germany and Mexico, various organizers felt female boxing was not appealing to the American masses.
Now promoters and media networks know women’s boxing and women’s sports have crowd appeal.
Expected to attend the IWBHOF event at Orleans will be Mexico’s Jessica Chavez and Jackie Nava who will be inducted into the women’s hall of fame along with Vaia Zaganas of Canada among many others.
It’s also a gathering place for many of the top proponents of women’s boxing including the organizers of this event such as Sue Fox whose idea spawned the IWBHOF.
Each event is unique and special.
Many of my favorite people in boxing attend this celebration of women’s boxing. Stop by the Orleans Casino on the second floor. You won’t be disappointed.
Heavyweight prospects
Heavyweights take the forefront this weekend in two pivotal battles in different continents.
In England, a pair of contenders looking to maintain their footing in the heavyweight mountain will clash as Joe Joyce (16-3, 15 KOs) meets Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic (17-1, 14 KOs) at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester. DAZN will stream the event.
Both lost their last match and need a win to remain relevant. Joyce has lost his three of his last four, most recently coming up short in a riveting slugfest with Derek Chisora.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Nevada, two young heavyweights looking to crack contender status clash as undefeated Richard Torrez (12-0,11 KOs) fights Italy’s Guido Vianello (13-2-1,11 KOs) at the Palms Casino.
Both are Olympians who can crack and each can take a blow.
The winner moves up into contention and the other will need to scrape and claw back into relevance.
Coming up
April 12 in Atlantic City: Jarron Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) vs Eimantis Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) IBF welterweight title.
April 12 Albuquerque: Fernando Vargas Jr. (16-0) vs Gonzalo Gaston (23-7); Shane Mosley Jr. (22-4) vs DeAundre Pettus (12-4).
April 19 Oceanside, Calif: Gabriela Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) vs Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1, 3 KOs). Also, Charles Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) vs Jorge Garcia (32-4, 26 KOs).
April 26 Tottenham Stadium, London, England; Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) vs Liam Smith (33-4, 20 Kos).
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Joe Joyce (16-3) vs Filip Hrgovic (17-1).
Sat. ESPN+ 2:30 p.m. Richard Torrez (12-0) vs Guido Vianello (13-2-1).
Sat. AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 8:00 8 p.m. Tim Tszyu (24-2) vs. Joey Spencer (19-1)
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History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era
This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.
This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.
Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.
Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.
And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.
Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.
Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.
The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.
In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.
Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)
The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.
Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.
That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.
The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.
The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.
Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.
Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.
Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:
Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)
Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.
Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”
Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.
What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.
What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.
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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.
The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.
Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.
Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.
Co-Feature
In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.
The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.
A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.
Other Bouts
In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.
Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.
Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.
Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.
Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.
Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.
Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.
Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.
There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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