Tomasz Adamek W12 Steve Cunningham, Dec. 11 at Newark, N.J.

On paper, the cruiserweight world championship fight figured to be an excellent one given the boxers' contrasting styles. But who could have expected a late-year epic, the greatest fight in the brief history of Versus-televised boxing and a title bout that ranked not far behind the first Evander Holyfield-Dwight Muhammad Qawi battle as the division's most exciting fight? Adamek earned the split-decision victory on the strength of three knockdowns (in the second, fourth and eighth rounds), but Cunningham dished out tremendous punishment of his own -- including the all-action fourth, when he battered the iron-chinned Adamek for nearly the entire round before getting clipped and going down late. For 12 rounds, there was terrific ebb and flow and loads of furious exchanges.