Brick City Boxing

By Les Dowgier

Tomorrow night in the Atlas Arena in Lodz, Poland, undisputed Cruiserweight Champion, Tomasz “Goral” Adamek, 38-1 (26 KOs) will square off against former top heavyweight contender, and fellow countryman, Andzej Golota 41-7-1 (33 KOs). After all the talk and speculation (and denials from Kathy Duva that this fight was happening), this battle between Poland’s finest and most famous boxers is finally here.

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This is quite an interesting fight, and not necessarily for all the right reasons. There are many questions coming from many different sources as to why this fight is even happening, at least from the point of view of Adamek. While Golota is most certainly past his prime, having put on too many miles on his boxing odometer, and knows he doesn’t have many, if any, big fights left, Adamek is at the top of his game. After his fight with Jonathan Banks in February of this year, Adamek became the undisputed Cruiserweight king, holding the IBF and Ring Magazine belts. However, in order to square off against Golota, Adamek was forced to vacate his IBF belt. Clearly, Adamek wants this fight.

Initially, this desire may be written off to financial motives, however, it appears that there is little certainty in the amount either fighter will take home, as each is to earn 33% of the take for the night (including ticket sales and advertising revenue). And considering that this fight doesn’t seem to be generating tremendous buzz in Poland, the fighters might not make a great amount of money. In the end it appears that one of the main reasons this fight was made is simply the dislike the two fighters feel towards each other. For some time now, Adamek has made it no secret that he doesn’t understand why the Polish people still support Golota after all his antics (inside and outside the ring) and feels that he should be Poland’s most popular boxer. Obviously, Andrew has not taken these words lightly.

A good bit of old-fashion animus is usually a welcome addition to any fight, ensuring that each fighter is coming in determined and with a desire to stop the other. It also has a tendency to make fighters undisciplined and too anxious to knock out the other, something which could prove disastrous for Adamek. However, I believe that Adamek is too strong mentally and too much of a professional to let that happen. Knowing that he’s never fought in the heavyweight division, and squaring off against a fighter who has great power at that weight, Adamek will fight a smart and disciplined fight, staying on the outside, using his superior speed to out point the larger and more advanced in age Golota over the distance en route to a points victory.

Of course, with one devastating right hand, Golota can rewrite that script and derail Adamek’s career. But I just do not see that happening. Golota is 41 years old and coming off yet another injury, which he suffered in his last fight against Ray Austin, forcing him to stop the fight in the 1st round. Also, he’s coming into this fight at 256 lbs, the heaviest of his career. It seems that he just doesn’t have enough left to defeat this young, determined and talented fighter.

I predict that Adamek will outpoint the aging Golota, after which, I hope he will move back down to cruiser, reclaim his IBF belt and unify that division.