By Dan Ambrose: Heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (46-2, 28 KO’s) weighed in today at 222 pounds for Saturday’s fight against big Travis Walker (39-7-1, 31 KO’s) for their bout at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Walker, 6’4 1/2″, came in at 235 lbs.

Adamek, 35, is taking a risk by coming in so heavy because in his last fight against Eddie Chambers last June, Adamek looked slow at 225 lbs and was beaten to the punch all night long by Chambers. Adamek eventually won the fight by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision, but many boxing fans felt that Adamek deserved to lose the fight by a lopsided decision.

The problem that Adamek had in that fight was his weight. He’s packed on a lot of muscle weight believing that it would make him a better fighter against the bigger heavyweights but it doesn’t seemed to have helped. Instead of being more powerful with his punches, Adamek is now slow of hand and doesn’t move around the ring like he used to when he was fighting in the 215 region.

Adamek may still beat Walker tomorrow night, but that’s largely because Walker is probably closer to being a journeyman than a contender at this stage in his career. Walker has taken losses to Kubrat Pulev, Ruslan Chagaev, Alex Leapai and Johnathon Banks in the past two years. Adamek is probably about as good as those guys and he too should get past Walker as long he’s not clipped with one of Walker’s huge right hand shots. But Adamek isn’t going to be winning any heavyweight titles with the way he’s been looking lately. He’s too slow and his power probably isn’t strong enough for him to stop the good heavyweights.

In undercard weights, former IBF cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham came in at 207 lbs for his fight against journeyman Jason Gavern. This should be an easy win for the 36-year-old Cunningham, who will be fighting for the first time at heavyweight.

Gavern weighed in at 239 lbs. Cunningham is going to have a tough time finding success at heavyweight because he doesn’t have the frame to compete against the best heavyweights and could find himself giving away 40 pounds against the bigger guys. Unless he faces nothing but journeyman for a couple of years to try and get a title shot, I see him getting picked off by the first halfway decent heavyweight contender he faces.