By Vadim Pushikin

Steve Cunningham (28-7-1, 13KOs) is a big threat to the cruiserweight world champion of the WBO, Krzysztof Glowacki (25-0, 16KOs) of Poland.

The champion's trainer, Fedor Lapin, says Cunningham will be a tougher fight than Glowacki's title winning bout over Marco Huck last November in New Jersey.

Cunningham will challenger Glowacki for the title on April 16th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Glowacki, who went down hard in the sixth, ended Huck's long reign with a spectacular knockout in the eleventh round. That match was a strong 'Fight of The Year' candidate.

Glowacki suffered a few injuries in the title winning fight and had to have ??surgery on his wrist and elbow.

The bout with Cunningham will be his first defense of the belt. Cunningham also holds a knockout win over Huck. He handed Huck the first loss of his career with a TKO win in the twelfth round in 2007.

Cunningham, a former IBF cruiserweight champion, has been fighting in the heavyweight division since 2012 and now he is dropping back to a more comfortable weight.

"Right now we're having the first week of sparring. It's no so easy to find sparring partners for Cunningham. This fight will be harder than the one with Huck. Then it was necessary to not back down, to not give in to the odds. Glowacki had a good a strategy executed it perfectly, but yes we did have a problem during the middle of the fight," Lapin said.

"In principle, with work for Huck is simple. And with Cunningham it's a little more complicated. You can't just come forward and crush, and destroy...this is not enough.. . He is more difficult opponent and we have to prepare with that mindset."