Former two-time world cruiserweight champion and current Heavyweight contender, Steve “USS” Cunningham has signed with adviser Al Haymon. This marks another shot fired from manager Al Haymon towards Main Events Promotions as Cunningham was one of the bigger stars under their roster and also potentially sets up a move down to cruiserweight for a match with Marco Huck in the future under the PBC umbrella.

For those who have not been following the Haymon-Duva/Main Events spout, essentially it has been a war of words, lawsuits and leveraging for power. The most recent incident was when light heavyweight Main Events’ fighter, Sergey Kovalev, requested a unification bout between himself and lineal champ, Adonis Stevenson. The belief amongst many was that Stevenson would vacate the belt and that Main Events was trying to call his bluff. This failed miserably when it was rumored that Stevenson’s side, Haymon, was willing to bid a large number, one that Main Events and their partner, HBO, would not be able to watch forcing, Kovalev out of the bout since he has an exclusive HBO contract. One can not think this didn’t have some part to play in this news.

Cunningham is coming off a controversial split decision defeat to Vyacheslav Glazkov on March 14 in Montreal in an anti-climatic fight that many, including myself, scored for Cunningham.

Steve and his wife/manager Livvy will be honored this Friday night at the 90th annual BWAA Awards dinner as they will receive the Bill Crawford Courage Award for their perseverance while their 9-year old daughter Kennedy went through a life-saving heart transplant last December.

The awards dinner will take place at Capitale in New York City.