Vitali: I was surprised at how good Adamek’s chin was

By Boxing News - 09/11/2011 - Comments

Image: Vitali: I was surprised at how good Adamek's chin wasBy Jim Dower: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (43-2, 40 KO’s) was in fine form last Saturday, pounding his overmatched smaller opponent Tomasz Adamek (44-2, 28 KO’s) at will from the outset, and getting little in return until the fight was finally stopped with bloody and battered Adamek completely out on his feet in the 10th round.

It was startling how quickly Vitali changed Adamek’s features in the 10th round, busting him up, knocking his nose sideways and cutting him. It looked afterwards as if Vitali had broken Adamek’s nose in pounding him with left hooks and right hands in the 10th. There was really little to give Adamek much praise for in this fight other than his ability to take solid shots from the much bigger, stronger and talented Vitali.

The one constant in the fight was Adamek’s strong chin which enabled him to take an enormous amount of hard right hands from Vitali that likely would have leveled a lesser fighter. Adamek to his credit showed a good heavyweight level chin, if not the power and ability of a heavyweight.

After the fight, Vitali said this to thesun.co.uk “From the beginning of the fight I knew I would knock out Adamek sooner or later. I controlled the fight but a couple of times I hit hi and I was surprised. He has a good chin.”

The chin was good, but you’ve got to have more than just a chin to beat a top heavyweight like Vitali. All Adamek could offer up was occasional jab to the midsection, a left or a right to the head when Vitali was coming forward. There wasn’t power in the shots to really do much other than annoy Vitali and cause him to come roaring back to land big right hands.

That may have been why Adamek threw so few punches. When he did land, Vitali would almost always return fire with really hard right hands, as if telling Adamek not attempt that again. For the most part, Vitali carried Adamek for nine of the rounds by taking it easy on him and letting up each time he had him badly hurt. In the 10th, Vitali decided to go all out and finish the job after hurting Adamek yet again with a right hand. It was over fast, as Vitali calmly followed a retreating Adamek around the ring, blasting him with right hands and left hooks until the referee stepped in to stop the bout.



Comments are closed.