Vitali: Adamek isn’t good enough to be a heavyweight champion, too small

By Boxing News - 09/11/2011 - Comments

Image: Vitali: Adamek isn't good enough to be a heavyweight champion, too smallBy Allen Fox: Photo: Sumio Yamada – Former light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek (44-2, 28 KO’s) might do well to consider moving back down to the cruiserweight or light heavyweight divisions to ply his trade after he was dominated and stopped in the 10th round by WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (43-2, 40 KO’s) last Saturday night in Wroclaw, Poland.

Adamek, 6’2″, looked like little more than a beefed up light heavyweight against a super heavyweight against the towering 6’7″ Vitali and never really stood a chance even for a moment in the fight. Adamek was badly hurt from right hands from Vitali in the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 10th rounds.

It seemed like every time Vitali would connect cleanly with a right hand, the smallish Adamek would go flying backwards against the ropes and would have to right himself as he slid down. In the 6th, Adamek went flying into the corner after getting hit by a hard right from Vitali. The referee ruled it a knockdown as the ropes held Adamek up. The strange thing is each time Vitali would hurt his smaller opponent, he didn’t go after him.

It was like Vitali was purposely carrying Adamek, trying to keep him in the fight for as long as possible to exert the most amount of punishment that he could. It wasn’t until the 10th round that Vitali really seemed intent on taking Adamek out, as he went after him with short power shots, tagging him hard over and over again and making a mess of the Pole’s face. The referee watched intently and finally jumped in to save Adamek from taking any further punishment. It’s a good thing he did, because Vitali had a lot of time to continue wrecking Adamek and he likely would have battered him until he dropped had the referee not stepped in.

After the fight, Vitali said “He’s a cruiserweight champion, he was a light heavyweight champion, but he’s not good enough to be a heavyweight champion because it’s another league.”

Vitali is right. Adamek is too small to beat the real heavyweights. Adamek may do well against the old 2nd tier heavyweights that he’s been mainly fighting for the last two years, but against a quality heavyweight like Vitali, Adamek was like a little boy against a full grown man. He has no business fighting in this weight class, and it’s just sad that he was given a chance at fighting for a title based on his wins over older heavyweights like 38-year-old Michael Grant, 42-year-old Andrew Golota, 38-year-old Kevin McBride and 36-year-old Vinny Maddalone. Adamek should have at least mixed in some younger heavyweights to prove that he belonged with Vitali.



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