By Sam Gregory: On August 21st heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek 41-1 with 27 KO’s will make a return appearance at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey as part of the acclaimed “Brick City Boxing Series” when he defends his IBF, WBO and NABO heavyweight titles against “Big” Michael Grant 46-3 with 34 KO’s.

Main Events and Ziggy Promotions, along with X-Cel Worldwide announced the promotion for the event.
Adamek has always made a big impression when he fights at the Prudential Center in Newark.

“Every time Tomasz Adamek comes to fight at Prudential Arena it feels like a big party,” promoter Kathy Duva of Main Events said. “The atmosphere is electric and the crowd gets bigger and bigger every time. We expect a capacity audience to turn out again, for the fun”.

The former light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion is preparing himself for the Grant fight at the Rocky Marciano Gym in Jersey City. Having done some sparring work with Faruq Saleem 38-1 with 32 KO’s the Jersey City resident has invited undefeated Philadelphia heavyweight Malik Scott 32-0 with 11 KO’s to his training camp.

Michael Grant is training for the fight in Las Vegas. Last week his manager, Nick Garone spoke for Grant saying, “You’re going to see that Michael Grant is prepared. He walks the walk, talks the talk as far as being a professional. He’s been away from the spotlight for quite a long time and we believe that’s a good thing. Michael is well preserved. He is 37 next week and in world heavyweights that’s a good age, it’s a seasoned age. August 21st will be a tremendous opportunity for us to be named on the short list of guys like Klitschko and Valuev.” Garone added, “We have the utmost respect for Tomasz Adamek, but honestly we see a win as a way to prolong Michael’s career and give him an opportunity to get back on the worldwide stage.” Garone reminded everyone that Michael Grant had once before defeated a Polish legend, Andrew Golota, and he said Grant would do the same thing on the 21st.

Going into this fight with the 6’7” Grant the thought is, Adamek has his sights set on the current WBC world heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. According to Adamek, “I want to test a tall guy like Michael Grant to see if I could stand in the ring with Vitali Klitschko.”

Eventually Adamek wants a shot at the heavyweight title. If it’s Vitali Klitschko or his brother, the current unified IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, it doesn’t matter to Adamek.

It’s something that’s reflected in the last three opponents Adamek has faced, each opponent bigger than the one before; from Estrada at 6’1”, Arreola at 6’4” and now Grant at 6’7”, the 6’2” Adamek is trying to show boxing promoters and everyone in the boxing community that he’s a serious contender in the heavyweight division.

In Adamek’s way of thinking the 6’7” Grant acts as the prototype for Adamek’s fight on August 21st in Newark. Taller than Wladimir and the same height as Vitali, Grant represents the bridge between Adamek and the heavyweight belt.

“Sure, that’s one of the reasons we’re fighting him is because he’s 6’7”,” said Roger Bloodworth, Adamek’s trainer. “Tomasz is obviously still a work in progress as a heavyweight, he’s only had three heavyweight fights (all wins). This is going to be a test for him. He’s going to answer a lot of questions with this fight.

So far Adamek’s biggest test in the heavyweight division came on April 24th with a 12 round majority decision over Cris Arreola; it took Klitschko 10 rounds to stop the 6’4” 250 lbs Arreola. Adamek was accustomed to pummeling light heavyweight fighters with his combinations to wear them down while absorbing their punches. Adamek learned to fight a more technical style against the big men he’s been in the ring with since making the change to the heavyweight division. Absorbing their punches would have had a lethal outcome.

Adamek knows every fight on his way to a title challenge has to command his full attention and none of these bouts can be taken lightly. He acknowledges there’s still a lot more he needs to learn.

“I’m close to a heavyweight title fight,” Adamek said. “This is a very important fight for me.”