It wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t boring either. In the co-main event of NBC’s Fury vs. Cunningham card, middleweights Curtis “Showtime” Stevens (24-3, 17 knockouts) and Derrick Findley (20-10, 13 knockouts) engaged in an 8-round contest that, going into it, many dismissed as another showcase bout for the up-and-coming Stevens.
At the opening bell of the first round, things were looking as if most observers observed correctly. Stevens found some success early, tripling up on his jab in an attempt to keep the much more aggressive Findley at bay. Findley gradually began building some momentum of his own, but before anything significant could happen Stevens would start ripping shots to the head and body of Findley. As the action continued it became more and more obvious that Stevens was the much more technical fighter versus Findley’s more brawler type tactics.
From the second round on, Findley would come charging out of his corner in an attempt to put Stevens away early. Unfortunately for him, this never occurred. Instead, Stevens would be forced along the ropes, but still managed to land the cleaner and much more effective shots. Regardless of the fact that Stevens was still getting the better of him in each of their exchanges, Findlay continued with this gameplan in hopes that the pressure would gradually lead to either exhaustion or a costly mistake. Neither happened. Instead, Stevens managed to adjust and finally forced the fight to occur in the middle of the ring where he was back to successfully sticking-and-moving the journeyman, Findley.
The pattern repeated itself for each of the following rounds. Things strangely turned in the 7th round however when Findley managed to score a knockdown against Stevens. Although on a slight punch, Stevens went down, but it was later attributed to a slip rather than the power of the punch itself. This led to confusion amongst the media and corners alike, as no one was exactly sure how to score the round. Regardless of the confusion, Stevens went back to mixing up his shots, out-boxing, and out-maneuvering Findley for the rest of the fight.
The final scores just solidified what people had already thought. Although not as impressive as many, including Stevens, had hoped it was dominant nonetheless. Curtis Stevens walked away with the unanimous decision win on score of (78-74), (78-74), and (79-73). While Derrick Findley’s status as a tought journeyman isn’t set to change anytime soon, Curtis Stevens future remains unclear after this performance. After saying that he wants to face Gennady Golovkin (26-0, 23 knockouts) next, it was obvious that he would be in way over his head. Expect Steven’s to keep facing mid- level opposition before finally getting promoted to facing some of the middleweight division’s tougher opponents.
