Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2017-08-26, fight not so exciting between Steve Cunningham and Andrew Tabiti: it gets two stars.The former Ibf cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham entered this fight with a pro record of 29-8-1 (13 knockouts) and he is ranked as the No.8 cruiserweight in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Oleksandr Usyk) but he won just one out of his last four bouts, against Felipe Romero in 2017 (=Cunningham vs Romero). Before this fight he had lost to Vyacheslav Glazkov (=Glazkov vs Cunningham), drew with Antonio Tarver (=Tarver vs Cunningham) and lost to Krzysztof Glowacki (=Glowacki vs Cunningham).
His opponent, the undefeated Andrew Tabiti, has a perfect boxing record of 14-0-0 (12 KOs=86%) and he entered as the No.29 in the same weight class. Between 2016 and 2017 he has won over Keith Tapia (=Tapia vs Tabiti) and Quantis Graves. Andrew Tabiti vs Steve Cunningham is valid for the NABF Cruiserweight title; undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Conor McGregor. Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2017-08-26
Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Division: cruiserweight (200 lbs, 90.7 kg)
Title: NABF Cruiserweight Title
Tabiti’s next fight: Andrew Tabiti vs Lateef Kayode
Cunningham’s next fight: Steve Cunningham vs Frank Mir
Cunningham vs Tabiti Fight Video:
(Free embeddable video hosted on Ok.ru and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights)
Official video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dB63sOrfuo
Tabiti has the Mayweather house style learned very well. Nobody will find him easy to hit. His low punch output against the non-menacing Cunningham suggests he isn’t going to put on many interesting shows, though, either. I can’t stand this conservative, negative style.
I’d like to see him in with Usyk before Usyk moves up to heavy, but I fear it wouldn’t be much more entertaining than this one. The busy, in-and-out Michael Hunter might be a more exciting opponent.
Lots of prancin and dancin but buggar all punchin and hittin! The fight was more like a tap tap dance session, a total lack of agression from Cunningham and an exhibition of Mayweathers running style from Tabiti. You would not want to pay big money for an exhibition like this one!!