Brick City Boxing

By Les Dowgier

This Saturday night, July 11th, at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, we'll see the return of IBF and Ring Magazine Cruiserweight Champion, Tomasz “Goral” Adamek 37-1 (25 KOs), as he squares off against “The Celtic Warrior”, Hackensack’s own Bobby Gunn 21-3-1 (18 KOs). Will this be a closely contested fight or a total blow out and easy pay day for the champ?

On paper this fight appears to be a bit of a mismatch (a notion reinforced by the various betting websites which have Adamek as a heavy betting favorite). However, is it possible that this may prove to be a rather intriguing match-up?

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According to Boxrec.com, Gunn started his professional career way back in 1989, as a 15 year old junior middleweight! He started his career by rattling off 8 consecutive wins before suffering his first loss, which he would avenge in his very next fight. Gunn’s junior middleweight career would end in 1993 with a very respectable record of 11-2 with 8 KOs. Gunn would not fight again for another 11 years, when in 2004 he stepped back into the ring, this time as a cruiserweight. Once again things started off very well for Gunn as he would dispatch with 5 out of his first 6 opponents inside the distance. Then on April 7, 2007, Gunn met the murderous punching, though potentially limited, Enzo Maccarinelli. The big Welshman ended the night early, with the referee stopping the fight in the very first round.
Gunn rebounded after this loss and has not lost a single fight since, going 5-0-1 (4 KOs) during the stretch.

Gunn has a rather interesting record and one that appears initially to be very solid. However, that perception is somewhat deceiving upon a closer look. Of the 24 professional fights on Bobby Gunn’s resume, only 11 were with fighters who had a winning record (and even among those 11, a few had just barely winning records and others had less than 15 fights under their belts).

Gunn is a fighter who has been in the game for quite a while and looks to have a good punch (though against rather weak competition) so he might potentially make things interesting. However, looking at the entire picture, I must side with the handicappers and public opinion and say that this should be a rather easy victory for Adamek. Adamek is, with the possible exception of Maccarinelli, head and shoulders above anyone Gunn has ever faced. Though Adamek has stated in a Polish news interview that he’s looking forward to a possible fight with Bernard Hopkins in 2010, I don’t believe he’s the type of fighter to completely look past and disregard any competitor and isn’t looking past Gunn.

After fighting former champion O’Neill Bell, the then current champion Steve Cunningham followed by the very tough challenger Jonathan Banks all within the past 15 months, Adamek deserves an easier fight where he can make some money and enjoy being on top. However, since I will be in attendance, I hope it goes at least 5 rounds!