NEWARK, N.J. — I’ve got three hours to wait for my train back to D.C., so I’ll share every last thought I have and every last note from my notebook rather than twiddle my thumbs.
The show sold around 5,200 tickets, according to a Prudential Center representative, which isn’t bad in this economy; folk involved with the fight seemed happy with that number. What I liked was how much the crowd was into the cruiserweight (200 lbs.) main event. Certainly, they could have taken a little bit more interest in the main undercard bout, the bantamweight (118 lbs.) alphabet title belt fight between Joseph Agbeko and William Gonzalez, given what an excellent fight it was. But they were so noisy during Tomasz Adamek-Steve Cunningham that you have to forgive them. Now, the fans who booed Cunningham during his Versus interview should be ashamed of themselves. I guess I’ll take a little lack of class if it’s from an engaged audience, and that’s what this was…
The televised portion of the fight was excellent, and it deserves some of the plaudits it has received as the best overall televised card of 2008. The untelevised undercard was a little woeful, alas, but putting local fighters on a fight outside of Las Vegas is ultimately the right move, and that’s what they did, with one exception…
Junior welterweight (140 lbs.) Devon Alexander of St. Louis may have been in against an overmatched opponent on the undercard, but even then he showed me something by finishing him so decisively and without hesitation. Everything about Alexander says that he could end up being a very, very good fighter. His power doesn’t blow you away, but he can punch a little, he can box, he can brawl, he’s seemingly got a strong chin and he’s extremely hungry…
I couldn’t tell much about Paterson, N.J.-based welterweight (147 lbs.) prospect Henry Crawford from his destruction of Maximino Cuevas. Cuevas had been knocked out in three of his last five bouts coming in, and he only had a chance for about 30 seconds. You’d think a 27-year-old guy with 19 wins and one draw coming in — Crawford — would be fighting a better caliber of opposition at this point…
I missed the walk-out bout trying and failing to make a 10:22 p.m. train back to D.C., but I’m told I didn’t miss much…
Gonzalez’ face after the Agbeko fight was in rough shape. That was a really hard fight, and even though I had Agbeko winning clearly, I can see why some might have scored it closer…
I hung with some pretty cool guys on press row. But being away from a traditional newspaper newsroom these days, I forget how grating sportswriters can be at their worst. If I was a boxer, I’d have a lot of trouble with some loudmouth fat ass telling me at the end of a 12-round war that I wasn’t in a real fight and I should instead be auditioning for “Dancing With The Stars.” I don’t have any evidence that opinion was shared with the fighter himself, but man, did I hear it in my ear every two seconds during Agbeko-Gonzalez…
Cunningham clearly had some regrets about how he fought, and in some ways, he should. He seemed goaded on to trade by the crowd when boxing from a distance would have been wiser. He acknowledged that Adamek drew him out of his gameplan. In the 4th round, he said, “I overshot my load,” since he sniffed a potential knockout. Left out was that he allowed himself to be backed into the ropes for basically no reason, and, BROKEN RECORD PET PEEVE EXPRESSION ALERT, dangled his left hand far too low and left himself open to big punches. On the other hand, if he hadn’t done all those things, the fight might not have been as thrilling as it was. He said if he gets a rematch he will box more…
Cunningham said he felt he had a little rust, too. I buy that — he’d been out of the ring for 11 months. Here’s what I don’t buy: He insists that Adamek never hurt him. Maybe he wasn’t badly hurt in the 4th, but he was the other two times…
Adamek seemed to stay in his game plan a little more. One Polish writer said trainer Andrew Gmitruk deserves some credit for that, and that he’s a very smart man. I’ll take their word for it. I was surprised he was able to hurt Cunningham, who’s shown serious resiliency over his career, so even though he falsely maintains he was faster, he was very powerful. Adamek talked about the possibility of moving up to heavyweight (thumbs down) or fighting some of the other title-holders. I’m less opposed to that, but only by contrast. Guillermo Jones and Giacobbe Fragomeni may make for fun fights with Adamek, but a rematch with Cunningham is THE fight for him. I hope the Polish fans, and fans of Polish descent, will insist upon it…
No one seems to agree on how to pronounce Adamek’s name. I’ve heard every possible variation this week.
