Brick City Boxing

By Les Dowgier

Former cruiserweight kingpin Tomasz “Goral” Adamek, 39-1 (27 KOs), is continuing his march through the heavyweight division and appears to have a general plan of assault mapped out. On February 2, 2010 the hardman from Zywiec, Poland (now making his home in Jersey City, NJ) will square off against former US Olympian Jason “Big Six” Estrada, 16-2 (4 KOs), at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. Next, in a fight which has yet to be arranged, Adamek may be taking on the rugged and hard-hitting Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola, 28-1 (25 KOs) in Arreola’s home town of Riverside, CA. And, according to long-time Adamek manager Ziggy Rozalski, should Adamek be victorious against the tough Mexican-American, he will have a great chance to meet the winner of the March 30th showdown between “Fast” Eddie Chambers, 35-1 (18 KOs) and IBF and WBO heavyweight champion “Dr. Steelhammer” Wladimir Klitschko 53-3 (47 KOs).

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Though I am certainly a big fan of Adamek, I have to say I’m not a very big fan of his planned fight schedule. In regards to Adamek’s first fight, I believe that picking Estrada as an opponent was a good choice. Though Estrada weighs in at around the 240-245 lb. mark for his fights, he’s certainly not a “big” heavyweight and despite his protests that his lousy knockout percentage (21%) is due to the fact that he’s fought good opponents who aren’t easy to knock out, he’s definitely not a big puncher and has little chance of knocking out the iron-chinned Adamek. Despite my belief that Adamek will win this fight, Estrada is a solid fighter who should certainly not be overlooked, especially since Adamek has only fought one previous fight at heavyweight. That said, I see Adamek being a little too quick for Estrada and outpointing Jason over the distance.

Now we get to Adamek’s second planned fight, a possible showdown against Chris Arreola. Though this fight isn’t yet contracted and Arreola’s promoter Dan Goossen is apparently interested in pursuing other fights, both Adamek and his manager Rozalski, have stated that HBO is interested in televising an Adamek - Arreola main event on April 24th. Everybody who understands the modern day boxing business knows that in the end it is the networks that make the fights because it is the networks that choose whom to televise and it is the networks that have the money. Therefore, if it is true that HBO is only interested in having Arreola fight Adamek, it makes it quite a bit more likely that this fight will be made.

I must say that I do not like this fight for Adamek. Arreola is a true heavyweight with a great chin and a tremendous punch. He would be a tough opponent for anyone, and with Adamek’s often lax defense and lack of heavyweight experience, the fight could certainly turn into a nightmare (pun intended) for Tomasz in a hurry. Furthermore, it is a very high risk and relatively low reward fight as the fight will undoubtedly be a difficult one while a victory won’t lead to a guaranteed title shot and may be written off by critics who state that Arreola just isn’t the same fighter after the Vitali Klitschko fight (or that he was never that great to begin with). Overall, this will be a VERY difficult fight for Adamek and one he might lose. After all, there’s a reason David Haye’s path to the title didn’t pass through Riverside.

If Adamek does get passed Arreola, a potential date with “Dr. Steelhammer” awaits, a fight the difficulty of which does not need to be mentioned.

Though I understand Adamek’s reasoning for entering the heavyweight division, namely recognition, glory and of course money, I believe that he’s simply taking the wrong path and should instead take a page out of the book of David Haye. Haye is WBA Heavyweight champion after defeating the clearly past his prime Monte Barrett and the very limited Nikolai Valuev; avoiding Wlad, Vitali, Chris or any other legitimate dangerous heavyweight…talk about the path of least resistance. Now, he enters into negotiations with the Klitschko brothers on much more level terms already having won a legitimate heavyweight title. One thing is for sure though, in choosing to take on the heavyweight division head-on Adamek is sure to take part is some great fights!