It wasn't a walk in the park for the American champion. He looked rusty and out-of-shape in the opening couple of rounds and had to work extremely hard to get his way into a fight with a limited and slow but gutsy and determined opponent. Cunningham lost a duel of jabs in the first round and was tagged with hard overhand rights by the Serbian in the second. Round three was a big round for the USS who got aggressive and outworked Licina in close quarters. In round four, the champion used another approach by wisely outboxing short-handed Licina from the distance.
The fifth stanza saw a tiny comeback from the challenger while the sixth round was even. BoxingScene saw the fight 57-58 - for the challenger at this point but from that point on it was only Steve Cunningham who was seen in the ring. The American fighter mixed his boxing skills with some tactical capabilities to frustrate and to fool rapidly slowing Licina one round after another. He was also successful in short offensive bursts dealing more and more punishment to his shorter opponent. In round eleven Licina attempted a rally but failed to besten already fatigued champion. Cunningham dug even deeper to get the better of negative Serbian challenger during the last stanza.
It wasn't a perfect showing by the fighter, who is widely recognized as a #1 cruiserweight in the world. Nevertheless, all three judges saw it unanimously in his favour: 118-110 (Howard Foster), 117-111 (Dave Parris) and 115-113 (Manuel Oliver Palomo). BoxingScene scored this affair 117-112 - also for Steve Cunningham.
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