By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten former Olympic heavyweight Gold Medalist Odlanier Solis (16-0, 12 KO’s) wants a shot against heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (42-1, 27 KO’s) next. However, the chances of that happening are slim and none. Adamek is on cruise control taking on much lesser threats as he’s carefully matched to keep him winning in en route to taking on one of the Klitschko brothers. Adamek’s handlers aren’t about to put him in with a live body like Solis and have him exposed before facing the Klitschko brothers. Right now, Adamek is perceived to be one of the top five heavyweights. It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t beaten the top guys to actually prove that he deserves that ranking.

It’s enough that he’s beating guys like Jason Estrada, Michael Grant and an overweight and injured Chris Arreola. In a perfect world, Adamek would have to earn a shot against the Klitschko brothers by taking on and beating Solis, Alexander Povetkin, Denis Boytsov and Samuel Peter. After winning those fights, there would be no question that Adamek deserves and is ready for a fight against either of the Klitschko brothers and/or WBA heavyweight champion David Haye. However, in the real world, all it takes for Adamek to be considered gold is to beat Estrada, 38-year-old Grant and a 250 pound Arreola and probably 38-year-old Lance Whitaker, who is being mentioned already as Adamek’s next opponent in November.

Adamek will clearly be in over his head when he finally does face the Klitschko, because he didn’t show much in his win over Grant last Saturday night that would indicate that he’s in the same class as the Klitschko brothers. This is all about hype. Adamek is being built up and there’s enough fans following him that honestly think he can beat the Klitschko brothers, despite the fact that he’s being carefully matched up against guys he can beat and look good against. Adamek didn’t look good against Grant, and that’s something that people will hopefully ignore.

He’s got one more fight against 38-year-old Whitaker coming up in November, and Adamek needs to look especially good in that fight to make up for his poor performance against Grant. Whether he looks good or not, he’ll still get the fight with one of the Klitschko brothers, but it will make a big difference in drumming up fan interest in a potential Klitschko-Adamek fight for next year. It will no doubt that place in Germany and like all Klitschko fights, it will be viewed in a jammed pack stadium.