Steve Cunningham, Curtis Stevens Win In Philadelphia

Heavyweight Steve Cunningham and middleweight Curtis Stevens both survived rocky situations in their bouts last night at Philadelphia’s Liacouras Center, pulling out victories on last round heroics.

Two-time former IBF cruiserweight champion Cunningham, 27-6 (12), largely outboxed previously undefeated USBA titlist Amir Mansour, 20-1 (15), for the first four rounds until he was floored by heavy right hook from the explosively fast Mansour in the fifth.

Cunningham managed to beat the count but southpaw Mansour’s follow-up assault dropped the Philadelphian again. Cunningham barely made it to his feet in time and was clearly in dire straights but was saved by the bell to end the round.

The taller Cunningham, a veteran of eight world title contests, used his experience to gain valuable recovery time and resumed outboxing Mansour again.

At 41 years of age, Mansour showed remarkable quickness and strength but lacked the stamina to keep up with Cunningham, who at 37, no longer has the sharp reflexes shown during his prime cruiserweight years.

This combination of fighter attributes made for a competitive contest and both boxers also had to contend with cuts.

In the tenth and final frame, Cunningham dropped a very tired Mansour, who wasn’t hurt and continued on.

Cunningham swept the cards 95-92, 95-92 and a rather wide 97-90 to annex the USBA crown and keep his hopes of a world title opportunity alive.

There was a great action fight on the undercard as middleweights Curtis Stevens, 27-5 (20), and Tureano Johnson, 14-1 (10), went shoulder-to-shoulder for every second of the contest.

Despite having considerable height and reach advantages, previously unbeaten prospect Johnson unexpectedly went immediately to the inside against much more experienced former NABF titlist Stevens, noted as a heavy puncher who had gone seven rounds with WBA champion Gennady Golovkin in November.

The approach paid off as the fresher, quicker Johnson was more adept at slugging it out in the trenches until Stevens began to find range in the fourth and shook his rival. But Johnson never went down and by round’s end was returning fire and backing up Stevens.

Johnson resumed control for the next five rounds, managing to put Stevens on the ropes and force a phone booth battle that saw great two-way action.

Occasionally Stevens would fight his way off the ropes but would tire and find himself pinned back there again.

In the last round, the exchanges were taking place in the center of the ring when Stevens’ punching power bailed him out as he connected with a full-blooded left hook to the chin of Johnson, who was clearly stunned and took two more lefts as he staggered back onto the ropes.

Stevens threw both hands, reeling off 10 punches in quick succession as Johnson laid on the ropes, not throwing punches back, not blocking anything, just slowly sagging when referee Gary Rosado jumped in and waved the fight off at 2:09 of the tenth.

Expect a rematch.