Cunningham prepared for 'fireworks' against Glowacki

— -- Like virtually every top cruiserweight before him, Steve Cunningham eventually moved up to the heavyweight division looking for more glory and money.

A two-time cruiserweight world titleholder, Cunningham left the division in 2012 but had a spotty record as a heavyweight. He never found glory and while he did make a few bucks, he never had that one big payday.

He went 4-3-1 and had some moments, but not enough of them. Before getting knocked out, he dropped the much bigger Tyson Fury, who went on to upset Wladimir Klitschko for the heavyweight championship. He suffered a decision loss to Vyacheslav "Czar" Glazkov in a fight virtually everybody thought Cunningham won. And last August he fought to a very debatable draw with Antonio Tarver, who tested positive for steroids following the fight.

Cunningham then decided to return to cruiserweight, which was not a problem physically since he was always a small heavyweight having never weighed more than 210 pounds.

"I was sick of getting cheated and robbed of opportunities at the heavyweight division," Cunningham said. "I decided to come back down. It's no problem. Three pounds or four pounds, no big deal. Here we are."

"Here" is getting ready to fight for a third cruiserweight world title in his first appearance back in the division. He will challenge Krzysztof Glowacki in the co-feature of the Premier Boxing Champions card Saturday night (NBC, 8:30 p.m. ET) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

In the 10-round main event, welterweight Errol Spence Jr. (19-0, 16 KOs), 26, of Desoto, Texas, will take a major step up in competition. The 2012 U.S. Olympian and the 2015 ESPN.com prospect of the year will face former junior welterweight world titleholder Chris Algieri (21-2, 8 KOs), 32, of Huntington, New York.

In the opener, also scheduled for 10 rounds, blue-chip light heavyweight prospect Marcus Browne (17-0, 13 KOs), 25, a 2012 U.S. Olympian from Staten Island, New York, will face fellow prospect Radivoje "Hot Rod" Kalajdzic (21-0, 14 KOs), 24, a native of Bosnia and Herzegovina living in Saint Petersburg, Florida.

Cunningham (28-7-1, 13 KOs), 39, of Philadelphia, originally never intended to fight as a heavyweight.

"My initial goal was to stay at cruiserweight and do my best and do my part to put the cruiserweight division on the map here in America," Cunningham said. "Because when I was a cruiserweight champion, there was no attention, no wealth, no television [in the United States], no anything for cruiserweight. So my goal was to try to help this cruiserweight division -- be the best cruiserweight and make good fights. But it's like I got elbowed out of the cruiserweight division.

"Even with a belt I couldn't unify it. Then I lost my belt [on a questionable technical decision to Yoan Pablo Hernandez] and these guys wouldn't fight me even then. They still knew how I lost my belt wasn't right. So the only way I could go was up. I couldn't make light heavyweight so heavyweight was it."

Cunningham competed in the division but came up short in his biggest fights.

"I felt I got robbed a few times [which stopped] me from getting that No. 1 [mandatory] spot," he said. "I felt I was going to stay heavyweight. But then we realized that, 'Hey, these judges, they're not understanding what you're doing to these big guys.' They like their heavyweights to knock guys out, to throw a couple punches and somebody's on the ground.

"You've got Steve Cunningham in there throwing 700, 800 punches a fight, moving, flipping, countering and that's not a heavyweight to them. So the team, my wife, my manager, we all sat down and were just like, 'Hey let's just go, let's do the cruiserweight thing now and make it happen from there.'"

He faces a difficult task against Glowacki in what shapes up like an action fight. Cunningham has never been one to back down from a good scrap and Glowacki (25-0, 16 KOs), 29, of Poland, who will be making his first title defense, won his 200-pound world title in dramatic upset fashion when he rallied from a big deficit to knock out heavy favorite Marco Huck in the 11th round in August on the Cunningham-Tarver undercard; Cunningham stopped Huck in the 12th round of a 2007 title defense in Germany.

"Glowacki made a big splash with his fight of the year performance against Marco Huck when he spectacularly knocked Huck out in the 11th round to capture the world title after having been knocked down himself and rising like the Undertaker does in WWE," promoter Lou DiBella said. "It was really one of the more remarkable turnarounds I've seen in a world title fight.

"[Cunningham is] 39 years old but with a lot left in the tank. This is absolutely a very, very strong challenge to Glowacki's title and a fight that I expect to be extremely entertaining."

Glowacki-Huck was a bona fide fight of the year contender, but Glowacki has not fought since due to left wrist surgery following the fight. He is healthy now and excited to fight in the U.S. again. With so many Polish fans expected at the Barclays Center, he'll be the overwhelming crowd favorite.

"I'm very happy to be healthy. Training camp went the way I wanted to and I feel 100 percent ready to get in the ring," Glowacki, a southpaw, said. "I have to win. That's the most important thing. It's nice to be fighting on such a great card, but all that matters is keeping my belt. Fans can expect to see beautiful boxing. It will be a war inside of the ring. Most importantly, I will win."

The layoff was frustrating for Glowacki, who had hoped to defend the title last fall.

"My doctors were telling me that this was a seven-millimeter break in my hand so I couldn't do anything," he said. "I was running. I was spending some time in the gym, but obviously not boxing. But maybe there was a silver lining in disguise because it makes me so unbelievably hungry to actually be back right now. So this is my time and this time away made me even more hungry than usual."

After beating Huck, Glowacki said he became a star virtually overnight in Poland.

"When I arrived in Poland in the airport there were people with flowers," he said. "There was a police escort to my hometown. Everybody was so happy. It's an unbelievable feeling to be a world champion. I want to have this feeling again coming back after this fight. Before, I was relatively unknown but it happened and it changes everything unbelievably right now. People are smiling at me. On the streets, they approach me. They want to talk boxing. It's unbelievable and a great feeling to have."

Cunningham knows he is in for a battle against a determined opponent. Glowacki's rally to win the title kept Huck from breaking the division record for most title defenses at 14.

"When you beat a guy like Marco Huck, who was about to make history, and you beat him like Glowacki beat him, you have to think he's good and realize you can't take Glowacki lightly," Cunningham said. "He's a warrior. He's a problem, something I'm going to have to deal with.

"I know I have a great opponent. He took the belt from the champion. He got up off the canvas so I can't look at him lightly at all. But I'm here to do a job. We are coming to steal the show. I'd like to steal the show without me getting hit too much. A fight is a fight. You know I come to win, so we're going to have some fun."

Cunningham's ultimate fun would be returning to cruiserweight and winning another world title.

"Coming back down to cruiserweight wasn't difficult at all," he said. "I was a cruiserweight who was fighting heavyweight and I'm just ready. We want to get together, we want to make some fireworks, and my goal is to be three-time world champion and please the fans and television. So there we have it."