News – Adamek vs. Estrada on February 6th

By Erik Schmidt: Former World Boxing Council light heavyweight champion and IBF cruiserweight title holder Tomasz Adamek (39-1, 27 KO’s) will possibly be fighting former 2004 U.S. Olympian Jason Estrada (16-2, 4 KO’s) on February 6th as Adamek, 32, looks to continue with his heavyweight campaign. Adamek vacated his IBF cruiserweight title in October in hopes of getting a title shot against one of the heavyweight champions. Last month on October 24th, Adamek took out 41-year-old Andrew Golota in an impressive 5th round stoppage in Poland.

Adamek knocked Golota down twice in the fight, once in the 1st and a final time in the 5th before the one-sided fight was finally stopped. However, that win really didn’t show whether Adamek will be able to stand up to the shots from a good heavyweight because Golota by this time in his career isn’t even close to what he once was in his prime.

Golota came into the fight having lost three out of his last six fights with his only three wins coming against B level fighters. Adamek, 6’1”, still looked good against Golota, showing good hand speed, power and an excellent work rate.

In stepping it up against the slightly pudgy looking Estrada, Adamek will be facing a fighter with a good work rate, if not power. Estrada has decent boxing skills, but his power is completely nonexistent at the heavyweight level. In other words, the perfect opponent for Adamek to fight without facing too many risks. Estrada was defeated by heavyweight contender Alexander Povetkin earlier this year in April in a fairly one-sided 10 round decision loss.

Estrada was able to land a lot of shots against Povetkin, but didn’t have the same power on them compared to Povetkin. Also, Estrada seemed to tire out in the later rounds, perhaps because he looked to be carrying around some extra weight around his midsection. At 6’1 247, Estrada appears too heavy for his frame and could stand to lose some extra weight and become more effective.

Estrada has a good chin and has never been stopped, so this will be a good test to see whether Adamek’s power carries over to the heavyweight division. Povetkin, a good puncher, wasn’t able to move Estrada one bit in their fight and had to be content with just outworking him for the decision. Adamek will haven to be ready to defend against a lot of punches from Estrada, however, because the American fighter likes to throw a lot of shots and keep his opponents busy on defense.

Estrada defeated journeyman Zuri Lawrence in a 7th round stoppage in his last bout in September. Aside from that, Estrada has victories over a number of fairly well known journeyman such as Lance Whitaker, Charles Shufford, Demonic Jenkins, Zack Page, Robert Hawkins and Yanqui Diaz. In November 2006, Estrada lost an eight round majority decision to Travis Walker, a big puncher.

Adamek weighed 214 for his bout with Golota. Adamek’s lack of weight may be a concern in the future as he moves up against bigger heavyweights in the division. 214 is small for the heavyweight division and he doesn’t have the hand speed to compensate for his lack of size and reach. Adamek may do well for awhile, but sooner or later he’s going to run into a problem when he faces one of the bigger heavyweights in the division.

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