By Jim Dower: Heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (42-1, 27 KO’s) feels that he did a great job against 38-year-old Michael Grant on Saturday night in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey. In an article at Sportsillustrated.cnn.com, the 33-year-old Adamek had this to say about the fight with Grant: “If he hit me, he hit me with one punch. There were no combinations. In my mind, I thought I won all 12 rounds.”
The judges at ringside seem to almost feel the same way as Adamek, giving him the decision by the lopsided scores of 117-110, 118-110, and 118-111. However, few fans agree with those scores and many thought the fight was a lot closer with Adamek edging it by a couple of rounds. Adamek took heavy shots in the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th rounds.
He didn’t react well to some of the punches, as staggered around after getting hit with a short right hand from Grant in the 6th and was hurt once again in the 9th. In the 12th, Adamek once again got hurt from a right hand from Grant and needed to scramble around to keep from getting knocked out.
At one point, Adamek shoved Grant hard in the back to buy time. The referee just allowed Grant to be roughly shoved without taking points off from Adamek. It wasn’t a pretty picture to see Adamek fighting for his life against a fighter that he should have been able to beat without any problems.
If you’re a Adamek fan, you’ll see his win over the 6’7” Grant as evidence that he can possibly beat the Klitschko brothers, the two heavyweight champions that are considered the best in the division. However, if you’re a regular fan of boxing, you’ll likely see Adamek’s performance as evidence that he’s not ready to take on the Klitschko brothers right now.
For the most part, Adamek looked like a small heavyweight trying to compete with a bigger one with more power. Adamek was busier throughout, throwing more and landing more shots. However, his punches had no effect on Grant, and he just looked too small to really do much with the 38-year-Grant.
This was the perfect opponent for Adamek to look good against, because unlike the Klitschko brothers, Grant rarely threw any punches in any of the rounds. But when he did throw shots, Grant’s punches had a big effect on the tiny Adamek.
You could tell when Grant’s shots bothered Adamek, because he would immediately start running and would avoid mixing it up in a serious way for a long time after getting nailed. Had this been the Klitschko brothers or one of the other handful of top heavyweights in the division, Adamek would have been getting hit with 40 to 60 power shots per round similar to the ones that Grant landed when he was able to hurt Adamek.
It’s hard to give Adamek any chance at beating the Klitschkos or the better heavyweights because of his lack of size, power and the way he reacts when hit hard. Adamek seems to get hurt too easily and that’s going to be a problem unless his chin improves in the future.
Comments are closed.