Career
His nickname, "United States Ship", is a reference to his 1994–1998 United States Navy service on the aircraft carriers United States Ship America and United States Ship Enterprise. Cunningham began his professional career in 2000 with a 19 fight winning streak including a split decision over Guillermo Jones. On November 26, 2006, he challenged Krzysztof Włodarczyk for the Vacant IBF Cruiserweight Title but lost by a disputed split decision in front of Wlodarczyk"s fans in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.
Later, Cunningham challenged Wlodarczyk again in the summer of 2007.
He stopped undefeated Marco Huck in Germany in December 2007. He lost a split decision (116–110, 115–112, 112–114), in a fight that was close in spite of the fact that Cunningham was knocked down in the second, fourth, and eighth rounds.
On June 5, 2010, Cunningham regained the IBF Cruiserweight title with a fifth round stoppage on cuts of Troy Ross in Germany. Cunningham was knocked out in the seventh round by Tyson Fury, a British boxer, in an IBF heavyweight title eliminator on April 20, 2013.
Cunningham had the much bigger Fury down in the second round.
After being promoted by Kathy Duva and Main Events for several years, he is now advised by First Rate (at Lloyd's) Haymon. Cunningham is trained by Naazim Richardson. He joined light-middleweight Boyd Melson, Shawn Estrada, Demetrius Andrade and other boxers in Team Fight to Walk, an organization focused on increasing awareness in boxing of the importance of stem cell research for spinal cord injuries.
