Steve Cunningham is in a position few fighters dream of: Thursday night, he will contend for a vacant Ring belt in the Cruiserweight division, marking him perhaps only the fifth recognized champion in the history of the division. He goes in the favorite, and does so near his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. What is so stunning about this story is that apart from reairing of his first bout with Krzysztof Wlodarczyk on some of the FSN affiliates, none of his fights have ever been televised in the United States. Such is the luck of the big-but-not-so-big men. 

Contrasting with his story is the dominant heavyweight of his era and a man who used the cruiserweight division as a stepping stone, as well as a junior welterweight showdown with potentially massive implications in 2009.

HBO (12/13):

Any article about the weekend’s boxing action would have to open with the heavyweight showdown in Germany that will feature the division’s sole unified champion, Wladimir Klitschko. This is not the first time mention of the younger Klitschko has appeared here and it is unlikely that it is the last at this pace. After seeing IBF and perhaps #2 heavyweight Alexander Povetkin pull out due to injury, former champion Hasim Rahman has taken his place. No matter what the final result, it is the first time a sitting heavyweight titlist or champion has made 3 defenses of his championship since Lennox Lewis defeated Michael Grant, Francois Botha, and David Tua (2 of which being the top contenders to his throne) 8 years ago. Unlike Lewis, Klitschko has instead fought merely a single major challenger (the unification bout with WBO title holder Sultan Ibragimov) and less than astounding competition in Rahman and Tony Thompson. Wins, however, are wins, and the more Klitschko piles up, the more respect and interest he’s likely to accumulate doing so. 

VERSUS (12/11 & 12/13)

James Toney, meanwhile, is in a strange position. Argurably on his way to beating Hasim Rahman before their second fight was ruled a no contest earlier this year due to a headbutt, Toney will fight on the main event of his own card against substitution Fres Oquendo for Versus, with former gold medalist Andre Ward on the undercard. Toney instead must try to beat a talented but non-name heavyweight to keep some sort of standing in crowded field of former contenders and drying up title opportunities. With the name “Klitschko” occupying 3 of the 4 paper belts, Toney’s best chance for an title shot perhaps lies with Nicolay Valuev, the interim WBA title holder in lieu of Ruslan Chagaev’s repeated disappearances. The card is not a bad one per se, but a far superior show predates it by 48 hours.

Steve Cunningham’s IBF Cruiserweight Title defense against Tomasz Adamek is the rare occasion where everyone can agree. While other title belts exist and are fought for, the vaccum left by David Haye’s departure to heavyweight and the resumes of both make them the clear #1 and #2 fighters in the division, both in human polls (Fightnews, Ring Magazine) and computer based (Boxrec shows merely a 21 point difference between the two and a 350+ point drop down to 3rd from Adamek to Guillermo Jones). While Ring Magazine fights often are superfights, this is a major exception. Neither man has been well publicized in the US; Cunningham, as stated above, has never seen live TV coverage here. Adamek’s first US appearance was for his 2nd fight with Paul Briggs, their first war having been passed over by HBO to show the sub 60 second Golota/Brewster by itself. While unfortunate that neither man has had the publicity they perhaps deserve, it allowed Versus to snatch the card up as part of a big push made for December by the network. Its quite possibly the best fight on paper to be shown on free cable television in over a decade. Joining it on the broadcast will be another title fight between bantamweight KO artist William Gonzalez and Ghana’s Joseph Agbeko in what will probably be another thrilling fight.

SHOWTIME (12/13):

You can’t always get what you want. Showtime spent significant money preparing to get fans ready for a third fight between Kendall Holt and Ricardo Torres, even going through the effort of securing TV rights to their first bout, initally only available in Colombia. Torres pulled out early this week, nearly leaving the network high and dry. However, an almost equally intruiging matchup has been culled by sacrificing the chief support bout. Demetrius Hopkins, nephew of Bernard, will get his first crack at a world title against Holt, offering a pair of technically sound boxer/punchers a major stage to play on.

The undercard features Yuri Foreman, the subject of a recent documentary film.

ESPANOL STATIONS:

Telefutura only has two boxing shows left for the popular Solo Boxeo Tecate series before it is off the air following heavy duty cost cutting. You can catch once popular flyweight prospect Brian Viloria and super featherweight super-prospect Urbano Antillion Friday night. For those with DirecTV, you may be able to catch Fabio Eduardo Moli against someone not very good on TyC Sports.