On January 17, 2009, the WBC Legends of Boxing Museum, located at the American Sports University in San Bernardino, California, will host a benefit dinner party in honor of former WBC super featherweight world champion Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez. A full evening of entertainment will be provided for your enjoyment, with a silent auction featuring rare autographed gloves, statues, and other prized items from the world of boxing not usually available for purchase..
Also at this ceremony, the WBC will name Israel Vazquez as “Emeritus Champion” in the super bantamweight division, and Genaro will present him with the honorary belt .
WBCares’ Jill Diamond and WBC Legends of Boxing Museum Chairman Dr. Rudy Tellez will spearhead the event that will feature guest speakers WBC President Dr. Jose Sulaiman, WBC super bantamweight champion Vazquez, and WBC Continental Americas and NABF heavyweight champion Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola, among others.
Please purchase your tickets in advance, as we have limited space available. If you want to participate but are unable to attend, please send your generous donations to the address listed below. All donations will be greatly appreciated, and 100 percent of the money will go to the Hernandez family. On behalf of everyone at the museum, we thank you in advance for supporting Genaro and his family during this tough time.
WBCARES: All donations are tax deductible: Tax ID: # 262665978
Donations should be made to:
World Boxing Cares (WBCARES)
36 W. 22nd St.
New York, New York 10010
Please mark the check: “Genaro Hernandez”
For ticket information or to reserve your seat, please contact Rudy Tellez at MouthPieceDoctor@yahoo.com, or by telephone at 323-229-1694.
TICKETS FOR MARQUEZ-DIAZ WORLD TITLE BOUT GO ON SALE JAN. 9
The battle lines have been drawn and now the stage is set for February 28th’s Ring Magazine World Lightweight Championship between champion Juan Manuel Marquez and challenger Juan Diaz which will take place at Houston’s Toyota Center.
Additionally, Golden Boy Promotions is pleased to announce that tickets for this clash of boxing superstars will go on sale on Friday, January 9th, at 10 am CT and are priced at $300, $150, $75, $50 and $25. They are available for purchase, online at www.ToyotaCenterTix.com, by phone at 1-866-4-HOU-TIX and select Houston area Randalls locations. Tickets will be available at the Toyota Center Box Office starting Monday, January 12th at 9 am CT.
Mexico’s premier fighter and a future Hall of Famer, Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez (49-4-1, 36 KO’s) has signified excellence for over 15 years and in three weight classes. A world champion at featherweight and junior lightweight, the 35-year-old Mexico City native made an immediate impact at 135 pounds when he won the Ring Magazine World Lightweight Championship by becoming the first man to stop Cuban great Joel Casamayor on September 13, 2008.
Just nine years old when Marquez made his pro debut, 25-year old Juan Diaz (34-1, 17 KO’s) has roared through the pro ranks during his eight-year career and built a stellar reputation as one of the fight game’s most exciting young stars. The Former Three-Time World Lightweight Champion defended his crown seven times, beating the likes of fellow World Champions Acelino Freitas and Julio Diaz along the way. In his last bout in September of 2008, “The Baby Bull” thrilled his hometown fans at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas with a dominant 12 round decision win over Australian warrior Michael Katsidis.
Marquez vs. Diaz, a 12 round bout for Marquez’ Ring Magazine World Lightweight Championship, is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Cerveza Tecate and Southwest Airlines. The world title bout will take place on February 28th from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas and be televised live on HBO’s World Championship Boxing beginning at 10 pm ET / 7 pm PT.
For more information please visit www.goldenboypromotions.com.
Accolades Galore For Cunningham-Adamek In The 2008 Year End Boxing Awards
The results of the various on-line 2008 Year End Boxing Awards have now been announced, whilst most, as expected, had conclusively chosen Manny Pacquiao as “Fighter Of The Year”, the choice for “Fight of the Year”, which seemed to be a forgone conclusion for Vasquez-Marquez III to many earlier in the year, became a little harder for the judges thanks to the exceptional performances put in by Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham and Tomasz ‘Goral’ Adamek when they locked horns in Newark, New Jersey on December 11th 2008.
Within hours of the epic battle for the IBF cruiserweight crown taking place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, Cunningham-Adamek was being praised by boxing pundits and the fans alike. Nearly every report and review claimed it to be a late candidate for “Fight Of The Year” and called for a rematch.
Cunningham-Adamek received it’s first major accolades by being named as “Fight Of The Month” by badlefthook.com and also by Brent Brookhouse at the MMA on-line magazine, bloodyelbow.com. Just a day or so later followed the news that boxingscene.com had awarded it “Cruiserweight Fight Of The Year” status.
Then as the Christmas Holidays loomed large the various year end reviews and awards started to appear. Any notion of a clean sweep by Vasquez vs Marquez III for “Fight Of The Year” honours was quickly dispelled when The Herald News published it’s 2008 Boxing Awards announcing that Cunningham vs Adamek was their “Fight Of The Year” with Vasquez vs Marquez III runner-up.
Shortly after Chris Richards of boxinggeek.blogspot.com followed suit by awarding “Fight Of The Year” honours to Cunningham vs Adamek and stating his reasons for doing so. “This was not the most hyped fight of the year, the most watched fight of the year, the biggest money fight of the year, or even the fight whose resolution made me happiest. I admit, I thought Cunningham won by two points. Yet this was an amazing fight, for a legitimate world championship, broadcast on free cable. Both men fought to win from beginning to end, with Cunningham skilled and busy and Adamek patient and powerful. I’d honestly rather see these guys fight a second time than any other pair I saw fight this year. Even more than Vazquez-Marquez IV!”
It wasn’t just the American press that had noticed just how good the Cunningham vs Adamek battle was. Tim Smith from frankwarren.tv wrote on the British promoters website. “FIGHT OF THE YEAR: You think I’m going to say Pacquiao-De La Hoya, but you need both guys throwing punches to constitute a fight. My pick is Tomasz Adamek-Steve Cunningham for the IBF cruiserweight title that very few people saw. I saw it live at the Prudential Center in Newark, a place typically reserved for pro hockey. It was a sparse crowd of just over 5,000 and they were treated to a rousing display of courage and guts. Adamek had Cunningham on the canvas three times in the fight, and twice he had him down and hurt. But Cunningham kept bouncing back up and firing at Adamek, who has a granite chin. It was a back and forth fight that saw Adamek squeeze out a 12-round split decision. How either man stayed upright for 12 rounds is beyond me.”
It wasn’t just Cunningham vs Adamek that took the odd accolade away from the awesome Vasquez vs Marquez III as sportinglife.com gave their “Fight Of The Year” award to Margarito vs Cotto, with Vasquez-Marquez III as runner-up and Cunningham-Adamek in third place, as did Brian Wilbur of ringsidereport.com
Cunningham vs Adamek was placed as runner-up to Vasquez vs Marquez III by Joon Lee, 15rounds.com, Chris Iorfida from Canadian broadcaster CBCSports.ca, Luke Kohler at lukekohler.com and boxingscene.com, whose Cliff Rold wrote “Fans tuned in December 11th to see what they assumed would be an interesting fight. Few expected one of the best fights in the history of the Cruiserweight division.”
Eastsideboxing.com called it the third best fight of the 2008 and the lowest position given to this magnificent fight in the year end reviews was that by Scott Christ, badlefthook.com, who placed Cunningham-Adamek 4th in his Top 20 fights of 2008
The fight received honourable mentions in the year end reviews from Peter Czymbor of 8countnews.com, Paul Upham – secondsout.com, Ryan Kaye – 411mania.com and George Willis of the New York Post who also added “the slugfest between Tomasz Adamek and Steve Cunningham in Newark demands a rematch”. Boxingtalk.com gave both the fight and round 4 honorable mentions in their year end awards.
ESPN’s Dan Rafael, who also gave the fight an honourable mention, wrote in his year end review “The cruiserweight title bout featuring Tomasz Adamek and Steve Cunningham rates among the division’s best-ever fights.
On paper, the cruiserweight world championship fight figured to be an excellent one given the boxers’ contrasting styles. But who could have expected a late-year epic, the greatest fight in the brief history of Versus-televised boxing and a title bout that ranked not far behind the first Evander Holyfield-Dwight Muhammad Qawi battle as the division’s most exciting fight?”
In January 2009 the accolades still kept coming as boxingscene.com declared Cunningham vs Adamek “Fight Of The Month” to add to the “Cruiserweight Fight Of The Year” they had awarded it in December.
It looks like Cunningham vs Adamek is also a front runner alongside Vasquez vs Marquez III for the prestigious “Fight Of The Year Award” from the Boxing Writers Association of America as on the 4th January 2009, one of boxing’s most respected scribes, George Kimball, wrote in the Boston Herald “Pacquiao-De La Hoya turned out to be such a mismatch that it won’t get much support for Fight of the Year. Rather, the balloting will come down the March war between Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez and the Dec. 11 Tomasz Adamek-Steve Cunningham fight in Newark, N.J. The latter battle saw Cunningham lose on a narrow split decision despite going down three times. Our choice would be the latter, but the fact that it was waged in relative obscurity (on Versus) and before a relatively small segment of the electorate may hurt its chances.”
It’s particularly refreshing that a fight in the ‘underrated’ cruiserweight division has received so much attention and accolades as this class has suffered from lack of interest from the media for so long. Then again, there are rarely fights of this calibre in any weight class. It was special, it was without doubt one of the most exciting fights and not just of this year, but for a long while.
Should you feel that Adamek vs Cunningham II should take place in 2009 visit the campaign website www.wewantarematch.com and sign the on-line petition.