By Erik Schmidt: To no big surprise, Tomasz Adamek (39-1, 27 KO’s) stopped 41-year-old heavyweight journeyman Andrew Golota (41-8-1, 33 KO’s) in the 5th round last night at the Atlas Arena, in Lodz, Poland. Adamek, 32, had little problem with the slow Golota, battering him with hard combinations from the 1st round on. Adamek knocked Golota down once in the 1st from a right hand and then put him down a second time with a right and then hard left hand in the 5th.

After Golota made it back to his feet, Adamek plowed into him with a series of unanswered blows to the head until referee Bill Clancy stepped in to stop the one-sided affair at 1:20 of the 5th round.

Golota, who hasn’t looked really good in perhaps a decade, was just too slow and cumbersome for his own good against the younger, smaller Adamek. Although Golota was able to land some shots from time to time, his slow hand speed took a lot of the sting off of what might have been powerful shots.

It now looks like Adamek might decide to stay at heavyweight and try to make a stab at winning a title. He came in at 214 for Golota, which is about the same size as British cruiserweight David Haye, another fighter that has moved up in weight to attempt to win a title at heavyweight. However, Adamek doesn’t have the hand speed that Haye possesses and indeed, looked only slightly faster than the painfully slow Golota. At 6’1 ½”, it’s hard to say what Adamek is capable of accomplishing at heavyweight.

He’s not only smaller than most of the heavyweight contenders but also slower. Some might point to 6’1” Odlanier Solis as reasons why Adamek might be able to compete at heavyweight, but Solis is much faster than Adamek, even when coming in at a bulky 271. Solis has a bigger frame and seems more at home at heavyweight than Adamek. Additionally, Adamek would likely stand little chance against the Klitschko brothers, the two best heavyweights in the division who hold three of the four heavyweight titles.

Adamek could possibly beat World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, but then again Valuev is vulnerable to almost all of the top heavyweight contenders and will likely lose his WBA title next month in his defense against Haye on November 7th. Adamek would have problems against Haye and I don’t like his chances of winning that fight. Adamek could wait out one of the Klitschko brothers, Vitali, who will probably retire in a couple of years, possibly sooner.

However, by then there may be another two or three good heavyweights that could move into the picture and I think Adamek would then be both too old and too small to contend with them. He might be better off staying at cruiserweight where he would be a big fish in a small pond rather than ending up a small shrimp in a big sea of heavyweights.

As for Golota, it’s good that he got a nice pay day. I never thought for a moment that he had much of any chance against Adamek. In his prime, he would have beaten Adamek up if he came to fight, but the years have slowed Golota down and he’s lost much of his speed and flexibility. He looked very tight against Adamek and nothing like he used to look.