IBF cruiser weight (200 pounds) champion, Steve Cunningham (pictured at right), of Philadelphia, is trained by Naazim Richardson, the same man who works with three-division, five-time titlist Sugar Shane Mosley (46-6-1, 39 knockouts) and former undisputed middleweight (160 pounds) king Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KOs).
Last month, the 45-year-old Hopkins failed during his Golden Boy Promotions, Showtime televised bid to become the oldest man in the history of the sport to win a major world title, this, after appearing to have successfully negated knockdowns in the first and third rounds by out-boxing the 28-year-old WBC light heavyweight (175 pounds) king Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KOs) before Pascal’s partisan fans at the Pepsi Colesium in Quebec City, Canada.
The 39-year-old Mosley has a May 7, HBO pay per view televised, Top Rank Promotions WBO welterweight (147 pounds) title bout opposite eight-division titlist Manny Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs), who is also the holder of the WBC’s junior middleweight (154 pounds) crown that is not on the line.
The 34-year-old Cunningham (23-2, 12 KOs) believes that if Mosley follows the direction of Richardson, that he will be victorious against Pacquiao.
Cunningham and and IBF middleweight king Sebastian Sylvester, of Germany, will defend their respective titles against Serbian-born Enad Licina, of Germany, and, Mehdi Bouadla of France on Jan. 22 at Jahnsportforum, Neubrandenburg, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, promoter Sauerland Events announced on Monday.
Cunningham recently regained the vacant IBF cruiser weight crown with a June, fifth-round technical knockout of Troy Ross (23-2, 16 KOs). Ross had won his previous 11 fights, eight of them by knockout, and had floored Cunningham in the fourth round.
Licina (19-2, 10 KOs) has won two straight since losing an October, 2009, 12-round unanimous decision to Cuban-born southpaw Yoan Pablo Hernandez (22-1, 12 KOs) of Germany. Licina is coming off of last month unanimous decision over Felix Cora, who had scored three straight knockouts.
Sylvester (34-3-1, 16 KOs) will make the fourth defense of his crown, and is 5-0-1 with two knockouts over his past six bouts since losing by unanimous decision to WBA titlist Felix Sturm (34-2-1, 14 KOs) in November of 2008.
Sylvester scored knockdowns in the eighth, ninth, and, 11th rounds of his last victory, October’s unanimous decision victory over Germany’s Mahir Oral (28-3-2, 11 KOs). Bouadla has won 10 straight fights, with seven of those being by knockout, and four of those stoppage being in his past five bouts.
