A matter of the heart for fighter Steve Cunningham

WHEN IT was all said and done on Saturday night, and Steve Cunningham's opponent, Natu Visinia, wasn't allowed by his corner to continue after the seventh round, Cunningham celebrated.

Not alone, though. He's never alone.

He was joined in the ring by his entire camp, friends and family - and his 9-year-old daughter Kennedy, who still awaits a heart transplant.

They posed for pictures - Kennedy even throwing her fists up for the cameras - and shared smiles and then, in unison, they chanted: "Concrete Jungle!" Most of the crowd in 2300 Arena in South Philly, dozens of "USS Cunningham" supporters who had stuck around to see the 38-year-old Philly native celebrate, joined in as well.

"Concrete Jungle!" they yelled, repeatedly.

"That's our tribe," said Naazim Richardson, Cunningham's trainer. "We got a lot of different flavors, a lot of different things happening, a lot of different styles."

The tribe is something created by Richardson a number of years ago. It's a group - they won't call themselves a team - of Philadelphia boxers who over the years have banded together to form a brotherhood, a bond that keeps each fighter motivated.

The idea started in Richardson's living room, progressed to Happy Hollow Recreation Center in the Germantown section, then to Champ's Gym in North Philadelphia and on to James Shuler Memorial Boxing Gym in West Philadelphia.

It's become an exclusive brotherhood captained by Richardson, the lifelong boxing junkie who even started a record label with the same Concrete Jungle name years ago.

Rock Allen, Richardson's son and the former Olympian who was 15-0 professionally before being forced retire from the sport after an automobile accident, is one of the Jungle's first members.

"We're all family," Allen said. "That's the one thing about it, we don't call ourselves a team, we're a family. Not only do we associate with each other in the gym, but we associate with each other outside of the gym. We go to the movies together, we play games together."

As the Cunninghams still wait for the call that Kennedy's heart can be replaced - she was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare congenital heart defect - Steve's wife, Livvy and Kennedy have been living in Pittsburgh. Any day now, they hope, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh will have a new heart for her.

But, like in Cunningham's last fight against Amir Mansour, Livvy and Kennedy were ringside along with the rest of the family to see their man battle the biggest heavyweight he'd faced in six fights, since moving up from the cruiserweight division.

Cunningham (28-6) gave up 73 pounds to the 278-pound Visinia, who came into the fight at 10-0 , including eight knockouts.

Cunningham out-pointed, out-willed and dominated a much bigger fighter for seven rounds.

Richardson knows what it's like to be hampered and tasked with overcoming a medical battle. He was the victim of a stroke in March 2007. Laid up in a hospital bed, Richardson was surrounded by the Jungle.

He fought through the pain and expectations and taught himself to walk again.

"It's the same kind of fight," Richardson said. "When God has more work for you to do, you get up and do the work."

Led by Richardson, the Jungle kept Cunningham motivated through the most trying stretch of his career. Fighters like Karl Dargan, a 29-year-old junior lightweight fighter with a 17-0 record, and 30-year-old heavyweight Khalib "Bigfoot" Whitmore (6-0, five KO's) are current members of Richardson's "tribe."

Livvy doubles as her husband's manager on top of her regular motherly duties. Richardson said that throughout training camp they still would call her in Pittsburgh and she'd take care of whatever they needed to be done.

"The difference about her is, most women come into boxing thinking they got to be tough," Richardson said. "She can get everything done. You see the way she works for Steve and you're like, 'Damn, man I hope I'm doing my part.' She makes you want to work harder.

"This really is a family. We all go through it with his daughter. I told him to call off the one fight [vs. Mansour, when Kennedy didn't have much time to live] but he handled it better than us."

Before anything else in the ring, Cunningham's focus will be on Kennedy, as he and the rest of the family will head to Pittsburgh to await the transplant call.

But when it's time to return to the ring, whenever that is, he'll have the guidance and support of Richardson and the rest of the Jungle. Richardson seems to have a knack for getting the most out of older fighters. He'll take a 49-year-old Bernard Hopkins to Atlantic City next month for a light-heavyweight title fight.

"He knows this walk already," Cunningham said. "He knows what to tell me in getting older, what to do, how to take breaks and how to push up and move up in the workout.

"I trust Naazim, man. That dude tells me go do a backflip and split, I'm going to knock this dude out. I'm going to be in there dancing."