By Dan Ambrose: According to Steve Kim of Maxboxing, heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (46-2, 28 KO’s) may be taking part ion the IBF ordered heavyweight box-off four-man tourney featuring the following heavyweight contenders: Kubrat Pulev, Odlanier Solis, Alexander Ustinov and Adamek.

The winner of the tourney will become the mandatory challenger for IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. I figured that Adamek would skip the tourney and continue to face lower level guys to play it safe. However, Kim says that Adamek may participate in the tourney. If so, he’d really give give the tourney a shot in the arm because it will get a lot of attention with Adamek participating in it, and also the eventual winner will be seen as a lot more legit. I think it’s a great idea because whoever emerges as the winner of the box-off will be a more popular fighter.

The first bout of the box-off will be between the 6’4″ Pulev and former 2008 Olympic gold medalist Odlanier Solis.

Adamek fought for a world title last year against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko. Things didn’t work out well for Adamek, as he couldn’t deal with the huge size advantage for Vitali, and this led to Adamek losing by a 10th round stoppage. Recently Adamek gained 10 pounds and fought Eddie Chambers, beating him by a controversial 12 round decision. The weight that Adamek put seemed to make him a lot slower instead of improving his power. If anything, it made Adamek actually weaker because his shots were much slower than they previously had been. It’s thought that Adamek will lose that weight and come into his next fight around 215 to 217.