Mailbag: Cunningham makes his pitch

Darryl Cunningham plans to be clad in purple in the first fight he takes after facing former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik on Saturday in a Showtime-televised super middleweight bout at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio.

Cunningham may fit the boxing dictionary definition of "tomato can," but the 36-year-old southpaw from Detroit isn't upset that few give him a chance to survive more than a few rounds again Pavlik, let alone win.

Cunningham vowed that he not only will win but also said he'll be so impressive in doing so that marketers for Yahoo! will be begging him to sign an endorsement contract.

"I'm coming to win the fight," Cunningham said. "This is my opportunity to shine. I'm not going to lay down, for Kelly Pavlik or for anybody else. The thing is, people may look and say, 'Oh, he's fought Rubin Williams. He's fought Antwun Echols. Those guys were through; they were old and washed up.' That's OK because the people saying that don't know me and they can't measure what's pumping in my chest. He has a plan and he's going to do this and that, but what's he going to do when I hit him with my left, when I pound him with a body shot, when I catch him with that check hook?

"I have something in my arsenal I call 'The Obama.' I have something I call 'The Pacquiao' and 'The Joe Frazier.' He's going to see things he's never seen before. Nobody may know me now, but the whole world is going to know me after this fight. And they're not only going to know me, they're going to love me."

Cunningham is a personal trainer who said he does 800-900 sit-ups per day. He said he never has smoked or drank and said he believes he has the body of a 19-year-old.

Boxing, he said, is about connections and he said it's as much about whom you know as what you can do. He said he just hasn't gotten the opportunity to be in a visible spot and thus, few boxing fans know of him.

"You need big-time connections or a lucky break to get these kinds of fights," Cunningham said. "No one knows who I am, so how are they picking against me? On the basis of what? I'm an unknown, just like many years ago, Kelly Pavlik was an unknown. It's not like Kelly Pavlik was born as a famous middleweight champion. He worked hard and he fought his way up and forced people to pay attention to him.

"That's what I've been doing. I've been in the background working hard, doing my thing, and nobody has noticed. But now I have this opportunity, and people are going to know Darryl 'Son of a Preacher Man' Cunningham, the people's choice. I'm going to win this thing, and Yahoo! is going to be calling me wanting me to endorse them and everybody else is going to say, 'Why was I sleeping on that kid? He can fight.' "

• It's bad enough that the World Boxing Council opted to declare Timothy Bradley a champion-in-recess so that it would be able to sanction Erik Morales' Sept. 17 fight against Jorge Barrios for its "vacant" super lightweight title. The hook is that Morales has world titles in three weight classes, and no Mexican has won titles in four. But what's worse is that Golden Boy Promotions is trying to push it as a legitimate title shot. It's a complete fraud.

• I'm not in favor of abolishing sanctioning body titles, as disgusting as the organizations are, because the fighters clearly want them and they're given a lot more respect elsewhere in the world than they are in the U.S. Most importantly, fighters make more money when they fight for one of them.

• It was good to see that referee Jay Nady returned to action in Las Vegas last week after undergoing heart surgery in January. Nady is one of boxing's good guys.

• Tyson Fury, who defeated Dereck Chisora via unanimous decision on July 23 in London, is 15-0, but don't get excited about him just yet. Fury is 6 feet, 9 inches tall and 255 pounds, but he's slow, not particularly nimble and isn't a very hard puncher. His size alone will help him win some fights in the decimated heavyweight division, but he's not the next big thing.

• The reason heavyweights always have been the most popular division in boxing though most of the sport's best fights come at the lighter weights is because fans love to see brutal knockouts. And generally, heavyweights provide the most devastating knockouts. As a result, here's a thought for HBO and Showtime: Set aside bonus money – How about starting at $50,000 – and give it to a fighter who gets a knockout? If there is no knockout on a televised card, carry it over to the next televised show. That will encourage guys to fight and add a bit of drama and attention to the show.

• Former light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal was ringside in Las Vegas to watch Beibut Shumenov stop Danny Santiago in the ninth round Friday in their World Boxing Association light heavyweight title bout. A Pascal-Shumenov fight would be entertaining, though I'd definitely favor Pascal at this stage.

Is Mayweather No. 2 regardless?

I know Victor Ortiz is a major underdog against Floyd Mayweather Jr. But if Ortiz wins when they meet Sept. 17 in Las Vegas, would you still rank Mayweather second in the pound-for-pound rankings? You did state in your most recent rankings article that Mayweather should jump back into the rankings, at no worse than No. 2, after his fight with Ortiz.

Marco Rojas
Los Angeles

The voting in the Yahoo! Sports boxing poll is not simply my work. Forty-five boxing writers around the world are voters, and the results are their cumulative work. Each person, including me, has one vote. I tally them, giving 10 points for a first, nine for a second, etc., down to a single point for a 10th-place vote. I was saying it's my belief that if Mayweather wins, he'd be no worse than No. 2. That said, there is no chance he'd be No. 2 if he loses. I still believe he would deserve to be in the top 10, and probably in the top five, but if he loses to Ortiz, I'd be floored if he was ranked second.

Is poll not credible?

Hey Kevin, this is ridiculous! You better throw a few jabs on the face of some of the voters in your pound-for-pound poll. How can Donaire be higher in the list than Juan Manuel Marquez? You can't compare their achievements at this point. Marquez is virtually a Hall of Famer and has been in so many great battles with the best in several divisions.

D. Arroyo
San Francisco

Marquez is one of the great fighters of recent vintage, but this is a case where I agree with the pollsters. I think Donaire really has developed into an elite fighter. You may remember when he knocked out Fernando Montiel in February, the great Roy Jones Jr. told me he thought Donaire might be the best fighter in the world. Donaire hasn't accomplished nearly as much in his career as Marquez, but the poll is designed to measure their current strength and I think it's clear that now Donaire is the better overall fighter.

Floyd is a major talent

I have an opinion and want to see if you agree. I am not the biggest Floyd Mayweather fan, but I feel he's the most talented fighter in the sport and can beat anyone in his current weight division. Many feel that Manny Pacquiao would give him trouble and I agree that he would, but I think in the end, Floyd would figure him out and beat him easier than most suspect. He has the physical aspects to match Floyd, but I strongly feel he lacks the mental aspects to match him. Styles make fights, and Manny's style would be his downfall when fighting Floyd. I actually think Amir Khan has a better chance, as far as styles go, to beat Floyd. The guy who has the best style to disrupt Floyd's defense is Sergio Martinez. Martinez is a slick and smart fighter with speed. I'm not sure I would pick Martinez to win, but that's what you need to compete with Floyd.

Darnell Grinage
Pittsburgh

I've long believed Mayweather is an exceptional fighter who would be difficult to beat. When there was first talk that he might fight Pacquiao, my opinion was at that time that Mayweather would win easily. But after watching Pacquiao the last several years, I've come back to the middle. In most sports, you favor defense over offense, and that's what the case would be in a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. Pacquiao also has the speed to hang with Mayweather. I'll pass on making a pick now, though, since they aren't fighting and Mayweather will be fighting for the first time in roughly a year and a half when he meets Ortiz next month. I like Khan but right now don't see him coming close to Mayweather. I agree with your comments regarding Martinez.

"That's what got him the middleweight championship of the world – his relentless work ethic, his relentlessness in the ring, coming forward, throwing punches. He has to come forward and he has to come forward with angles, and he has to throw punches. He has to get that hunger back.” – Kelly Pavlik trainer Jack Loew, on how Pavlik has trained and what he expects from him in Saturday's bout.