By Mario Ortega Jr.-
Fathers indoctrinating their sons, especially first borns, into their line of work is a long standing worldwide tradition. The sport of professional boxing is one of the many trades that has been handed down from one generation to the next in the history of humankind. Some second generation fighters have found great success emulating their fathers, while many others failed to excel inside the squared circle, perhaps in part to the inherent pressure that comes with following in large footsteps on a grand stage. Steve “USS” Cunningham is one father that left mighty big shoes to fill for his aspiring fighter sons. The former two-time world cruiserweight champion’s first born and namesake, Steve Cunningham Jr., looks to one day put his name on the side of the ledger of second-generation boxers that fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Cory Spinks call home. The junior Cunningham begins that journey as he makes his professional debut in boxing’s capitol on April 29th, on a card titled “Sons of Legends,” at the Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
The elder Cunnigham’s pro career was just starting to ramp up when he and his wife brought young Steve Jr. into the world. Despite bestowing his first son with his own name, Cunningham did not originally plan on molding his offspring into a world class boxer. “From the cradle I was actually more like, ‘No, my son is not going to box.’ I don’t know why, but maybe because I saw how dirty this business could be at that time,” remembers Senior. “I was signed with Don King and they were frustrating years for me. I beat everybody they put in front of me, but it was just a very uncomfortable contractual situation. So I’m like I don’t want my son going through this.”
The way life worked out for the Cunninghams played a part in Steve Jr. developing an affinity for the sport of boxing. “My wife worked and I went to the gym,” recalls Steve Sr. “I would take him to the gym, packed in the car seat and at around seven, I’d have him workout with me. I didn’t want him sitting there doing nothing and getting into trouble at the gym. It wasn’t that he showed talent, but I was just like, ‘Why not have him box?’ If I was a lawyer I would send him to law school. Or if I were a doctor, I would send him to medical school. I’m a boxer and not just a boxer, but a two-time world champ. Let me give him a shot.”
Having a world champion father surely opens doors for an aspiring second generation boxer, but with that advantage comes some strings attached. “Being his son, you never get a light sparring [session] or any easy sparring,” explains Cunningham Jr. “Whoever spars you or comes to your area, you get the hardest sparring there is. They bring their game. I will see them spar somebody else and think, ‘Dang, you didn’t spar them nearly as hard you sparred me.” They try to test you or get over on you.”
As Cunningham progressed in his pursuit of an amateur boxing career, he closely followed the career of his father as one might expect. The elder Cunningham has had a great career, but when you go up against the best in the world as many times as “USS” did, there are bound to be some setbacks.
“There was one thing I remember, and I don’t think he remembers this: it was after the first Adamek fight,” describes Senior. “When we were in the locker room after the fight…and it was a great fight, it was smoking. Junior said ‘When I grow up, I’m going to beat him for you.’ And I was like alright man, cool. So we are going to find Adamek, and in a few years he will be old as hell and he’ll have to fight Junior now. I remember that. That has been on my mind for years.”
While Cunningham Jr. may not remember vowing to defend his father’s honor after the first of two fights his dad had with the great Tomasz Adamek, there were other tough nights he does remember.
“The [Amir] Mansour fight was a crazy one because we were sitting there watching the fight and it was going good and then boom, he gets dropped,” remembers Cunningham Jr. of the 2014 bout.” And I looked over to my cousin and we started praying. Then he gets up and he gets dropped again. I thought, ‘It’s going bad, it’s going bad.’ Then he ends up coming back in the fight and whipping him. Finishing the fight and whipping him. It was really inspiring, we almost broke the ring celebrating that night.”
The two-time world champion father Steve Cunningham Jr. has always looked up to is also the man he looks up to from his stool in between rounds. The elder Cunningham did not always have confidence in his training ability, but found words of wisdom from the legendary Naazim Richardson that led him on the right path before a 2015 event held between fighters from Pittsburgh and fighters from Cuba.
“I called Brother Naazim and I was biting my nails, telling him, ‘We have got to fight a Cuban. I am going to send Junior to live with you for two months.’ Brother Naazim was like, ‘Listen, you have everything you need to train him to beat this Cuban.’ I was nervous as heck, but what he said and with what happened, for him to say I had enough to train him to win that fight, that helped to propel me as a coach.
As a fighter I excelled, but as a coach I didn’t know a damn thing. But I’ve been blessed to be under the wing of guys like Brother Naazim, Coach Shar’ron [Baker], Anthony Chase, Richie Giachetti…all of these guys I have trained under and I have stolen from, along with my own experience in the ring, and that’s what we get. With that we were able to beat a Cuban and I was like, ‘Wow, here we go.’”
Just as the elder Cunningham began the only prolonged layoff of his pro career, Steve Jr. came onto the scene at the national level in 2018. “Starting out it was cool and the only tournaments I would do were the Silver Gloves,” explains Cunningham. “The Silver Gloves are cool, but nothing compared to the national tournaments. It was a great experience, but the nationals are another level. Three to four rings running at one time. They are just knocking the fights out. It’s pretty dope. It’s fast-paced. You’ve got to keep your head in the game, stay locked in and be ready.”
During the 2020 USA Boxing National Championships (which were held in April 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the father-son duo of Steve Cunnighams did something maybe no other father and son have done together before: prepare for major boxing events that they each were going to compete in the same month. Just a couple weeks after the tournament, where Junior would end up short in the quarter-final round, the original Steve Cunningham competed for the first time in sanctioned action in over three years with a decision win over former MMA star Frank Mir in a boxing bout.
“When we were at the tournament in Louisiana, I was training mostly myself for that [Mir] fight,” explains Senior. “I sparred Junior for that fight, because Frank is a southpaw and Junior is a southpaw. He helped get me ready for that fight, a few rounds, but I didn’t even spar a lot. Keep it real, I didn’t expect too much from Frank, but I got in shape. Junior gave me that southpaw look more than a few times during that national tournament.”
Although Cunningham may have inherited some of his athleticism and ability to improve and grow as a fighter from his father, he did not completely inherit his dad’s height or overall size, being a middleweight. While the size discrepancy may alter some aspects of the sparring sessions between the two, Senior refuses to hold back on his ability out of necessity while sharing the ring with his first born.
“With him being 160-pounds, of course I hold back on the power, but skillswise heck no, I have to match him on the skill,” says Cunningham Sr. proudly. “Because he’s throwing and he can go 100 and sometimes he’s caught me and it hurts. He hits hard. Skill-wise, I am at 100 [percent] with him, but powerwise of course I’m holding back a little. Because I could just overpower him and that’s not helping either one of us.”
The more Cunningham Sr. has worked with his son in the ring, the more even the sessions have become. “There was one time we were sparring and I couldn’t get him,” recalls the senior Cunningham. “So I had to adjust my life after that. It’s been great. Of course I’ve seen his level stepping up, especially in the sparring. The things he does and the punches he chooses, so I’ve seen growth. Sparring me is the best thing for him on certain levels.”
Despite his affinity for how national tournaments operate as events, Cunningham Jr.’s last national amateur experience was one of a handful that left a bad taste in his mouth for the system on a whole. In the immediate aftermath of the 2021 USA Boxing National Championships, the Cunninghams decided it was time for Junior to make the leap to the paid ranks.
“A big part of the decision [to turn pro] was the last tournament that we were in,” recalls Cunningham Jr. of the December 2021 event in Louisiana. “I was boxing and did good in the first round. Then in the second round, I fought this tough dude [Ruben Salazar], but I was fighting two fights at the same time. I was fighting the ref and the fighter. I was boxing him and boxing him and the ref told me to stop running. I was moving, and I’m moving my head, and the ref started giving me eight counts. In the last round, he managed to squeeze in three eight counts to stop the fight. And the last eight count was on the bell. So it was really tough. So after that, we couldn’t take the amateurs anymore. We decided it was time to go pro.”
Cunningham Sr. shares his son’s frustration with how his last national tournament played out. “He’s beautifully boxing, and the referee tells him to stop running? And they find a way to give him three eight counts,” says Senior with frustration in his voice. “The last eight count was just him slipping. He slipped every punch that guy threw, only to get an eight count. I saw the look on his face, and I’m like, ‘I am sick of this happening to my kid.’”
Amateur referees are in the rearview now for Team Cunningham as they have their sights set on success in the professional ranks. At age 19 and with his dad in his corner, Cunningham Jr. seems to feel he is right where he was always meant to be in his career at this point in his life. “It’s crazy because the way my career has gone up until now is exactly how I imagined it as a kid,” proclaims the junior Cunningham. “Almost exactly like how I imagined it growing up and looking up to my father.”
“USS” Cunningham is in agreement with his son that now is the time for the next phase of Junior’s career. “I didn’t want his spirit for boxing to get damaged from the way amateur boxing was treating him, so I said we are going pro,” explains Cunningham Sr. “It’s done. Even at 19, I feel he is ready. He wants this bad, he works hard and he is only going to get stronger and stronger. So this is it right here. Now it is time to build him into a world champion.”
On April 29th in Las Vegas, Cunningham will make his debut on a card featuring sons of famous fighters like Tommy Morrison, Hasim Rahman, Roberto Duran and many others. One would think being featured in such a way for your pro debut would be intimidating, but Steve Cunningham Jr. sees the event in a different light.
“I’ve always been a junior, so there has always been attention drawn to my name because of my father,” explains the young Cunningham. “Actually there is not as much pressure as there would be usually [by fighting on a show with other famous sons]. I love it. It is a great opportunity for me. I feel good. It’s everything I’ve been waiting for all my life. All of the things I’ve been doing have been leading up to this. I’m ready. Ready to put on a show.”
Tickets for the event, promoted by Roy Jones Jr. Boxing and Ares Entertainment, which will be streamed live on Fite and headlined by a heavyweight clash between Kenzie Morrison and Hasim Rahman Jr., are available online at AXS.com.
Mario Ortega Jr. can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MarioG280
