Steven Ormain Cunningham (born July 15, 1976 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

) is an American professional boxer

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

. Nicknamed USS Cunningham in reference to his 1994–1998 US Navy service on the aircraft carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

s and .

Amateur career

As an amateur, he won the National Golden Gloves 178 lb (80.7 kg) title in 1998.

Professional Boxing career

Cunningham began his professional career in 2000 with a 19 fight winning streak including a split decision over Guillermo Jones

Guillermo Jones

Guillermo Jones is a Panamanian boxer best known for losing three world title fights in controversial decisions...

.

On November 26, 2006, he challenged Krzysztof Włodarczyk for the Vacant IBF Cruiserweight Title but lost by a disputed split decision in front of Wlodarczyk's fans in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Mazowieckie, Poland. Later, Cunningham challenged Wlodarczyk again in the summer of 2007. With a majority decision in his favor, Cunningham at last won the title.
He stopped undefeated Marco Huck

Marco Huck

Marco Huck is a German professional boxer of Bosniak origin. He is the current WBO Cruiserweight Champion.Marco started Taekwando and kickboxing at the age of ten...

 in Germany in December of 2007.

Cunningham defended the IBF title and fought for the vacant The Ring Magazine Cruiserweight Championship against Tomasz Adamek

Tomasz Adamek

Tomasz Adamek is a Polish professional heavyweight boxer. His record is 44-2 .He is the former WBC world light heavyweight champion and the former IBF, IBO and The Ring magazine cruiserweight champion. As of the end of 2009, Ring Magazine has ranked Adamek as the 30th best boxer in the world...

 in Newark, New Jersey, on December 11, 2008. He lost a split decision (116–110, 115–112, 112–114), in a fight that was close in spite of the fact that Cunningham was knocked down in the second, fourth, and eighth rounds.

Cunningham faced former WBC Cruiserweight Champion Wayne 'Bigtruck' Braithwaite, at the BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise, Florida on the July 11, 2009, and won the fight via a twelve round unanimous decision (119–109, 117–111, 118–110). On June 5, 2010, Cunningham regained the IBF Cruiserweight title with a fifth round stoppage on cuts of Troy Ross in Germany. Cunningham returned to Germany to defend his IBF title against challenger Enad Licina on February 12, 2011.

Other activities

He joined light-middleweight Boyd Melson

Boyd Melson

Boyd "Rainmaker" Melson is an American light middleweight boxer.As an amateur, Melson won the 48th World Military Boxing Championship gold medal in the 69 kg. weight class, and was a four-time United States Army champion, a three-time NCBA All-American boxer, a four-time West Point Brigade...

, super welterweight Denis Douglin

Denis Douglin

Denis Douglin is an undefeated professional boxer in the Super Welterweight division.-Amateur career:Denis had a decorated amateur career, finishing with an outstanding record of 92 wins with only 9 defeats...

, and other boxers in Team Fight to Walk, an organization focused on increasing awareness in boxing of the importance of stem cell

Stem cell

This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...

 research for spinal cord injuries.

Professional boxing record

| style="text-align:center;" colspan="8"|24 Wins (12 knockouts, 12 decisions), 3 Losses (0 by knockout, 3 by decision), 0 Draws
|- style="text-align:center; background:#e3e3e3;"
| style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Res.
| style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Opponent
| style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Type
| style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Rd
| style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Date
| style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Location
| style="border-style:none none solid solid; "|Notes
|- align=center
|Loss || align=left|  Yoan Pablo Hernandez

Yoan Pablo Hernández

Yoan Pablo Hernández Suárez is a Cuban professional boxer. Hernández has been featured in the top 10 rankings of Ring Magazine at Cruiserweight. He is the current IBF Cruiserweight Champion.-Amateur career:...

| || 6 (12) ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Enad Licina
| || 12 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Troy Ross
| || 5 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Wayne Braithwaite

Wayne Braithwaite

Wayne Braithwaite is a professional boxer. Nicknamed "Big Truck", Braithwaite looked like an invincible force that would rebuild credibility in the cruiserweight ranks, but the invincibility was short lived....

| || 12 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Tomasz Adamek

Tomasz Adamek

Tomasz Adamek is a Polish professional heavyweight boxer. His record is 44-2 .He is the former WBC world light heavyweight champion and the former IBF, IBO and The Ring magazine cruiserweight champion. As of the end of 2009, Ring Magazine has ranked Adamek as the 30th best boxer in the world...

| || 12 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Marco Huck

Marco Huck

Marco Huck is a German professional boxer of Bosniak origin. He is the current WBO Cruiserweight Champion.Marco started Taekwando and kickboxing at the age of ten...

| || 12 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Krzysztof Wlodarczyk

Krzysztof Wlodarczyk

Krzysztof "Diablo" Włodarczyk in Warsaw, Poland is a professional Polish boxer, the current WBC Cruiserweight World champion and the former IBF Cruiserweight World champion....

| || 12 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
||| align=left|  Krzysztof Wlodarczyk

Krzysztof Wlodarczyk

Krzysztof "Diablo" Włodarczyk in Warsaw, Poland is a professional Polish boxer, the current WBC Cruiserweight World champion and the former IBF Cruiserweight World champion....

| || 12 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left| Lloyd Bryan
| || 5 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Kelvin Davis

Kelvin Davis (boxer)

Kelvin Davis is an American boxer. He is a former IBF-champion in the Cruiserweight weight class.Known as "Concrete", Davis, a compact pressure fighter, turned pro in 1999...

| || 12 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Guillermo Jones

Guillermo Jones

Guillermo Jones is a Panamanian boxer best known for losing three world title fights in controversial decisions...

| || 10 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Forrest Neal
| || 4 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Sebastiaan Rothmann
| || 10 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Terry McGroom

Terry McGroom

Terry McGroom was a boxer in the Heavyweight division.-Amateur career:McGroom had a stellar amateur career prior to turning professional. He was a National Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight champion in 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1992 and a National Amateur Light Heavyweight Champion in 1991...

| || 8 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Demetrius Jenkins
| || 8 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Joseph Awinongya

Joseph Awinongya

Joseph Awinongya is a professional boxing trainer and public speaker on sports who operates the Will County Boxing Gym in Joliet, Illinois, and is best known as the trainer of IBO International Middleweight champion Osumanu Adama. He was also a former professional cruiserweight boxer known as...

| || 8 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Caseny Truesdale
| || 4 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Shawn Townsend
| || 3 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Shawn Townsend
| || 6 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  John Battle
| || 1 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Mike Williams
| || 6 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left| Richard Perry
| || 1 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left|  Jeff Bowman
| || 1 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left| Kanovas Alexander
| || 1 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left| Nate Frazier
| || 1 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left| Robert Marsh
| || 4 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center
| || align=left| Norman Jones
| || 4 ||
|align=left| 
|align=left|
|- align=center

External links

• Personal website