Tomasz Adamek vs. Eric Molina tonight

By Boxing News - 04/02/2016 - Comments

adamek54By Dan Ambrose: 39-year-old former two division world champion Tomasz Adamek (50-4, 30 KOs) will be trying to keep his struggling career alive tonight in his scheduled 12 round fight against former world title challenger Eric Molina (24-3, 18 KOs) at the Tauron Arena (previously Krakow Arena), Krakow, Poland. There’s an excellent chance that Adamek will lose this fight if Molina remembers to throw punches, and doesn’t fight in a timid manner like he did against Deontay Wilder last year.

Adamek, #8 WBC, has lost two out of his last three fights in losses to Vyacheslav Glazkov and Artur Szpilka. The only win Adamek has gotten in the last two years was against 48-year-old Przemyslaw Saleta last September.

Surprisingly, the World Boxing Council doesn’t seem to mind that Adamek’s career is imploding because they still have him ranked in their top 10 despite him losing two out of his last three fights. Adamek’s last true victory over a quality opponent was four years ago when he beat Steve Cunningham and Eddie Chambers by controversial decisions.

Many boxing fans that saw those two fights had Adamek losing both of them. I still remember those fights, and I also thought Adamek deserved to lose both. To go back to Adamek’s last uncontroversial win over a quality opponent, you have to go all the way back to 2010, when he beat an injured Chris Arreola by a 12 round majority decision.

Arreola suffered a fractured left hand early in that fight, and was fighting one-handed for the most part the last eight rounds. Even with the injury, Arreola still almost beat Adamek.

Adamek and the 33-year-old Molina will be fighting for the IBF Intercontinental Heavyweight title. The fight will be televised by Integrated Sports Media on pay-per-view. I guess there will be some boxing fans interested in paying to see Adamek fight Molina. However, if the WBC asks Adamek to fight one of the younger heavyweights with talent in an eliminator, then I can’t see Adamek agreeing to do this.

I don’t think he will do it. If he Adamek had to fight someone like Kubrat Pulev, Bermane Stiverne, Anthony Joshua, Carlos Takam or Alexander Povetkin, I think Adamek would lose badly. Those are true heavyweights, and not fighters that bulked up from 175 and cruiserweight to get to heavyweight like we’re seeing with Adamek.

Molina, 6’4”, can punch, and he has a good chance of winning tonight if he lets his hands go, and if his chin holds up. There’s nothing wrong with Molina’s punching power. He’s a major puncher. Molina’s 9th round knockout loss to WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder last year in June 2015 was due to Molina’s chin betraying him. He couldn’t take Wilder’s power shots. Molina failed to throw enough punches in that fight to make it competitive as it could have been.

It won’t be surprising to see Adamek get a world title shot sooner or later if he beats Molina, and adds some other names to his list. If the WBC keeps pushing Adamek up in their rankings, he might even work his way to a No.1 ranking. I don’t think I would agree to a limited heavyweight like Adamek getting a #1 ranking with the WBC, but I think it’s very possible. Look at how the WBC has Adamek ranked #8 right now despite the fact that he’s lost 2 out of his last 3 fights. If that’s all it takes for Adamek to get a #8 ranking with the WBC, then it’s hard to imagine Adamek getting a #1 ranking if he beats mediocre heavyweight like Molina tonight.

Adamek is a good fighter, but he’s in the wrong division. He should be fighting at cruiserweight or light heavyweight. But at 39, I don’t think it matters anymore. Adamek is up there in age, and even if he did move down to cruiserweight and light heavyweight, I think he wouldn’t have a place.

You can’t put Adamek in with guys like Sergey Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson, Marcos Huck, Krzystof, Glowaki Olesandr Usyk, Ilunga Makabu or Denis Lebedev. Just losing all the muscle weight to get back down to cruiserweight or light heavyweight would finish Adamek. But if he could make the transition, I still think he’s too old to compete.

Also on the Adamek vs. Molina fight card will be cruiserweight Mateusz Masternak facing Eric Fields in a 10 round bout. Masternak was recently beaten by Tony Bellew. Also on the card is cruiserweight Michael Cieslak fighting Francisco Palacios.



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