Round by Round: Weekly Boxing Notes

1.25 Milly Mill
↵With very little actual news coming from either the De La Hoya or Pacquiao camp after their headline-grabbing fight last Saturday, the big revelation of the week was the release of the fight’s pay-per-view numbers -- 1.25 million total buys. ↵↵Merely in relationship to PPV boxing history, that’s an impressive number. It’s the third biggest non-heavyweight PPV take in history (the top two being De La Hoya/Trinidad in 1999 and De La Hoya/Mayweather in 2007) and ninth on the overall list, ranking it among the most financially successful fights of the pay-per-view era. ↵

↵↵When you factor in the current state of the economy, this is a staggering achievement. The fight was signed before the credit crunch sent the economy spiraling into the abyss, and no doubt at that point Golden Boy and Top Rank thought that a De La Hoya/Pacquiao bout might approach Oscar/Floyd numbers, the 2007 blockbuster that was the biggest pay-per-view boxing event ever with upwards of 2.4 million buys. ↵

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↵↵Make no mistake about it -- despite the humiliating beating he absorbed last Saturday night, Oscar was still the A-side in that ring by a longshot. For all of those, myself included, who have anointed Pacquiao the heir to the Golden throne as the sport’s biggest star, and who seem all too eager to usher Oscar out the door to the old folks’ home, I have to ask you this: When Manny takes over as the A-side in these kinds of mega-events, does he pull anywhere near the same numbers on a regular basis? And if you find yourself inclined to answer that you don’t care, keep in mind that in this sport it is perhaps more true than in any other that a rising tide lifts all boats.↵

↵↵Adamek Sinks the USS Cunningham
↵Speaking of boats … ↵

↵↵If you missed last night’s Thursday night fight card on Versus, you missed some fireworks indeed. Former light heavyweight champ, Tomasz Adamek took Steve “USS” Cunningham’s IBF cruiserweight title (and the Ring title as well) by split decision, knocking him down three times over the course of a brain-blasting 12-round war that saw very little let-up in the action from either man. In a year that hadn’t already seen the likes of Margarito/Cotto and the third Vasquez/Marquez fight, Adamek/Cunningham would have a real claim on Fight of the Year honors, and certainly will garner some much earned honorable mentions in that category from boxing writers across the country when the year-end lists start pouring in over the next few weeks. ↵

↵↵This was a fight that in one major way was very reminiscent of Margarito/Cotto, because Adamek, much like Margarito, prevailed largely due to his superhuman powers of perseverance. Though Cunningham (a former member of the U.S. Navy) is not known as a puncher, he nevertheless hit Adamek with any number of clean, head-snapping power shots that looked like they would have knocked out a mere mortal fighter. Time and again, the Polish champion absorbed those shots and kept coming forward for more. In the fourth (a definite contender for Round of the Year), Adamek got caught in a buzzsaw of Cunningham’s combinations and appeared as if he might be on the verge of a knockout. But he held on through the onslaught (or staggered on – in true Eastern European boxing fashion, Adamek almost never clinches) and came back at the end of the round to put Cunningham on the canvas for the second time in the fight. ↵

↵↵Versus surely will be replaying this fight regularly in this coming week and I strongly recommend that you check it out, even if you’re only a casual fight fan. It’s free TV, it was a local promotion that brought out a packed and passionate crowd to the Prudential Center in Newark (Adamek is based in New Jersey amidst a large local Polish community), and it was two guys going to the wall with a legitimate title on the line. In short, in a week dominated by a fight that was about as big as boxing can be, to my mind Adamek/Cunningham was the best that it can be. Here’s hoping they do it again. ↵

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