Saturday night fans couldn’t help but feel sorry for Steve Cunningham. He wasn’t on the losing end of the seventh round stoppage, so much as he was a victim of a back alley New York City mugging. Tyson did so much pushing, shoving, elbowing and leaning on his smaller foe that Referee Eddie Cotton couldn’t keep track of all of the offenses. He needed a “clicker” to keep count of all of the fouls.
As far as talent, Tyson’s real ability was demonstrated by his skill in falling. That happened in the second round, when the light hitting Cunningham landed a looping right hand to the middle of Tyson’s substantial mug. The result was he got knocked on his arse. To his credit, he proved he can fall well, and frankly it was kind of fun to watch.
Tyson’s instructions seemed to be, “Keep your guard up and lay on this guy every chance you get.” There is no “sweetness” in that bit of psuedo science, but it summed up what Cunningham had to deal with. It was two fold, he not only had to avoid Tyson’s lumbering punches, but he had to wrestle a guy who had forty plus pounds on him, and was a half a foot taller. If the rules had been enforced, chances are even the light hitting Cunningham would have dropped the big lummox on his keester more than just the one time.
Instead, fans were forced to witness a seldom seen one-two. This unusual combination came in the seventh round when Cunningham was close to exhaustion. It consisted of a left forearm across the face, followed by a clubbing right hand. Cunningham never had a chance. Unfortunately the mugger Tyson got away with this 7th round robbery, and worse yet he continues to have the ability to keep up his annoying yammering.