By Sean McDaniel: Having just finished beating 6’7” heavyweight Michael Grant (46-4, 34 KO’s) by an unimpressive 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night, heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (42-1, 27 KO’s) is looking at fighting another 38-year-old journeyman in 6’8” Lance Whitaker (35-6-1, 28 KO’s) in November, provide that the two cuts over both eyes are healed by then. Adamek reportedly had five stitches in both eyelids after his win over Grant. Whitaker, 6’8”, used to be a good puncher in his youth 10 years ago.
However, he’s aged and has slowed down and doesn’t seem to be as big a puncher as he was in his earlier year. This is probably a couple steps below the fight with Grant, but it’s not surprising that Adamek isn’t taking on a top contender in the division because there’s a good chance that Adamek would get beaten and possibly knocked out. Although Adamek is considered to be in the top five of the current heavyweights in the division, his ranking appears to be a tad bit inflated. He’s a good fighter but his lack of size and power will be a problem for him once he finally gets put in with the Klitschko brothers. Adamek stands to get a $3 million payday when he does finally face the Klitschko brothers next year. This is why he’s not going to take any chances of getting knocked out by fighting a good heavyweight.
Whitaker’s best win of his career was a 2nd round TKO of Oleg Maskaev in 2001. However, Whitaker was then beaten in his very next fight by Jameel McCline by a 12 round decision in December 2001. Since then it’s been pretty much all 2nd tier opponents with the exception of Sultan Ibraginov, who stopped Whitaker in the 7th round in December 2005. Whitaker lost a 10 round decision to 45-year-old Oliver McCall in October 2009.
Adamek appears to be following closely in the footsteps of 6’1” Ibragimov, who like Adamek, is a smaller Eastern European heavyweight that was able to find success briefly as a heavyweight champion. Ibragimov was easily beaten when he took on Wladimir Klitschko in February 2008. If Adamek keeps taking on older big guys like Whitaker and Grant, he should be able to get his title shot in the near future and probably get destroyed. It’s too bad Adamek isn’t going to be put in with a live body before then because he should at the minimum have to beat a quality heavyweight like Samuel Peter, Denis Boytsov or Odlanier Solis before getting a title shot against the Klitschko brothers.
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