"This
is how I feed my family. I can't just go out there and get another big fight.
And he gets to fight Klitschko.”
–Steve
Cunningham after his loss to Adamek
After
Tomasz Adamek's undeserved victory over Steve Cunningham on Saturday, I lacked
the vitriol that many were expressing; for I had seen this fight quite often. Here are a few examples: Pacquiao-Marquez III, Taylor-Wright, Hopkins-Taylor I
and II and Williams-Martinez I. In these fights, the judges went with or
were overly generous to the "aggressor," who in almost all cases
happened to have the advantage in crowd support. Of the various types of bad
scoring decisions in boxing, this one – the crowd favorite who is the
aggressor– is most common. It doesn't make the final result more palatable for
the loser and it still feels unjust, but this scenario is fairly routine.
Saturday's
decision is why promoters and boxers demand home-field advantage, knowing that
in close rounds many judges side with the fighter who gets the loudest reaction
from the crowd. (Main Events promoted both fighters for Saturday's contest but
Adamek was the crowd favorite.) It's human nature to be affected by the
audience to some degree and many judges lack the experience to
block out the extraneous elements of the crowd to focus on the task at hand.
I'm
not saying it's easy. I was sitting in a heavily Polish section of the crowd,
where people in the neighboring rows legitimately thought that Adamek won nine
or ten rounds; he didn't. They stood and cheered during the last 10 seconds of
the early rounds as Adamek flurried. They were loud and boisterous throughout
the entire fight. Give Adamek's fans credit; their enthusiasm clearly had an
effect on the proceedings.
"I
did what I wanted to do in the ring. I boxed smart. It was a good fight but I
controlled the action"
–Cunningham
In
2008, Adamek and Cunningham waged a thrilling war. Cunningham won a
number of rounds on clean punching but he hit the canvas three times. His split decision loss was an
accurate reflection of a close and fierce battle. Cunningham landed with jabs,
solid straight right hands and left hooks. Adamek had most of his success in
exchanges, dropping Cunningham with counter right hands. In a just world, there
would have been an immediate rematch, but without adequate network support,
both fighters went in different directions.
During
Saturday's rematch, Cunningham wisely stuck to boxing. He established his jab
from the opening bell and used it expertly to Adamek's head and body. Adamek came
forward but in the early rounds, he typified "ineffective
aggression." He flung right hands, most of which didn't land or were
blocked. He tried to cut off the ring but Cunningham often escaped along the
ropes. Adamek at times seemed hesitant letting his hands go.
In
the early rounds of the fight, Adamek established a pattern where once the
ten-second warning sounded, he flurried with abandon, often catching Cunningham
with right hands and left hooks, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. These were
the best moments that Adamek had during the first four frames. He was clearly
trying to steal rounds, and obviously, it paid off.
"We
worked on keeping the right hand up in the gym. He hits hard. But I won the
fight. No doubt in my mind."
–Cunningham
The
conventional wisdom going into the fight was that if Adamek could knock down
Cunningham multiple times at cruiserweight, he should have similar success at
heavyweight. Adamek had a sizable weight advantage and an older and perhaps
fading Cunningham.
In
Cunningham's last two fights at cruiserweight against Yoan Pablo Hernandez in
late 2011 and early 2012, he hit the canvas three more times. Cunningham lost
both fights, which were very close. His legs didn't look good during
the rematch, potentially suggesting an end to his days as a top fighter.
After
the second Hernandez bout, Cunningham made a fairly shocking decision: he would
move to heavyweight. Because of problems in making weight, the ability to get meaningful fights on American soil or a last-ditch effort to remain relevant in the sport, Cunningham felt that his best play in boxing was to square off against the big boys. That Cunningham came into Saturday's rematch at a light 203 was extremely telling. Refusing to blow up in weight, Cunningham ignored Adamek's
bigger size for a similar cruiserweight physique. (Adamek entered the fight at
223.)
Once
the action started, Cunningham and his trainer, Naazim Richardson, rendered the
pre-fight narrative meaningless. Richardson, who is one of the best in boxing
at breaking down videotape and establishing a winning game plan, made several
key changes from the first Adamek-Cunningham fight. (Anthony Chase trained
Cunningham for that match.) Cunningham's right hand was a lot higher on
Saturday, which took away Adamek's lead and counter left hook. Cunningham
worked off of the jab and didn't lead with power shots. In addition, Cunningham
used his advantage in athleticism throughout the fight. He moved well in the ring and picked his spots to engage. He also limited exchanges,
which still favored Adamek. Cunningham's legs looked fine throughout the fight.
He spoke afterwards about a focus on incline work during training; clearly that
proved to be effective.
“It
was like a sparring session.”
–Adamek
in his post-fight news conference
If
I told you prior to the fight that it would be a sparring session, would you
say that the match went more Adamek or Cunningham's way? It's clear that Adamek
wanted to impose his will and dominate with power shots. Ultimately, the fight
wasn't a sparring session; it was quite good actually, but Adamek never could
figure out a formula to consistently assert himself. I
found his comment to be revealing.
In
truth, after facing heavy hitters like Vitali Klitschko and Chris Arreola,
Adamek probably felt much more comfortable in the ring against Cunningham.
Although Cunningham landed with flush shots throughout the fight, Adamek was
never in danger of going down, like he did earlier this year against Travis
Walker. Adamek knew that he had the power advantage and he fought accordingly.
In the few instances when they traded shots, Adamek's punches were
significantly harder. Actually, I expected Cunningham to go down from a counter
right hand at various points in the fight.
After a solid tenth round that may have included some of his best moments of the fight, Cunningham stood his ground and traded in the 11th and 12th rounds, in hopes of winning these frames convincingly. Understandably, he was reticent to coast on a presumed lead. However, this decision would greatly benefit Adamek. Letting his power shots go with frequency, Adamek had his most sustained success in the fight. During the final two rounds, he finally imposed his will and connected with several thudding right hands that hurt Cunningham.
After
the final bell, both fighters stood on the ropes, believing that they had won
the fight. Initially, the result was announced as a draw, but quickly it was
changed to an Adamek split decision victory. Scores were 116-112 (Dave Greer),
115-113 (Debra Barnes) and 113-115 (Tom Miller). The majority of the crowd
applauded the decision.
On
press row, I couldn't find one person who had Adamek winning the fight, or even
earning a draw. I scored it 116-112 for Cunningham and the final tallies among
the media ranged from 115-113 to 118-110, all for Cunningham. There was a lot
of talk about a "robbery."
“Now
what?”
–Cunningham
After
the match, I had a chance to see both fighters. Outside the press conference,
Adamek waited with his team while Cunningham was speaking at the podium. Adamek
looked good for having gone 12 tough rounds. His face was a little marked up
but nothing serious. He hugged his wife and took pictures with supporters and
fans. In fact, there seemed to be nothing out-of-the-ordinary. He was very
relaxed.
By
the time I talked to Cunningham, after he had spoken at the post-fight press
conference, he was still coming to grips with the decision. This wasn't the
first time that he had received a questionable loss in boxing, but this one,
with his advanced age and with his family and friends there to support him,
really affected him. He was hurt by the decision, and that pain took a far
greater toll on him than any of Adamek's right hands. What would he do now? At
36, what was left for him in boxing? As he spoke, there was anguish and some
disgust; there was no doubt in his mind who had won the fight.
"It
was bullshit."
–B.J.
Flores, boxer and NBC commentator, on the decision
My
final piece of business from the weekend was to learn more about the offending
judges. Here are some interesting findings: Dave Greer has been judging fights
consistently for 14 years and yet this bout was the biggest assignment of his
career. Greer's professional tenure has mostly consisted of trolling
around small-town Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland judging six and
eight-round fights. It's telling that in his 14 years he has been mostly
deprived of plum fight assignments. Good judges get high-profile fights. It's
usually that simple.
Debra
Barnes worked often in the '90s and judged some big fights, including bouts
with Duran, Camacho, Mercer, Mosley and Vargas. In the last 13 years, she has
worked a lot less. There are significant gaps in her record. According to
boxrec.com, these are the number of days in which Barnes worked as a fight
judge for the following years: 2000-1, 2001-1, 2002-2, 2003-4, 2004-1, 2005-2,
2006-2, 2007-3, 2008-3 2009-1, 2010-3, 2011-6, 2012-4. In short, Barnes is at
best a part-time judge and during the last five years, her biggest fights have
been Guerrero-Escobedo and Saturday's bout. Her card on Saturday should not be
shocking given her inactivity and lack of recent high-profile events.
Ultimately,
good people like Steve Cunningham will continue to lose decisions because of
bad decisions by state commissions. Appointing multiple weak judges for the
same fight is unconscionable. Even well regarded and experienced judges can fall prey to the roar of the crowd and respond Pavlovian-style to the "aggressor."
What happened to Cunningham wasn't just, but to pretend that this type of
result is shocking would be disingenuous. Sadly, it occurs far too often in the
sport.
Both Mora-Vera fights also fall into that aggressor-crowd favorite narrative.
ReplyDelete