By Sean McDaniel: Former IBF cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek (41-1, 27 KO’s) is quite proud of his chin and likes to talk about he’s able to take big shots without getting knocked out. Adamek has picked an older fighter but much bigger fighter in 38-year-old 6’7″ Michael Grant (46-3, 34 KO’s) to fight tonight at the Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey.

Grant is old and slow, and has rather marginal boxing skills to say the least. However, Grant does have good power in his right hand when he’s able to land it. Grant has a slight advantage in that Adamek isn’t used to fighting heavyweights yet and has been extra careful about the ones he has fought.

He did take on Chris Arreola, but Arreola looked like he hadn’t taken his training very seriously and to compound that problem, he injured his left hand early in the fight and had to depend on his right for most of the bout. Grant will probably be able to land more shots than Arreola did if he’s not taken out quickly by Adamek.

Grant’s long reach should enable him to land his power shots when Adamek is dancing around on the outside with his typical side to side movement. All Grant needs to do is reach out and swat Adamek from time to time with right hands.

It might be in Grant’s best interest to load up on everything he throws no matter what. He’s got to try and get Adamek out of there as fast as possible and can’t afford to let him get in his groove. Adamek looked really timid after getting tagged a couple of times by the light hitting Jason Estrada in his fight before his last one.

Adamek went in full running mode after getting hit hard by Estrada and was much less effective in the later rounds of the fight compared to how he looked before in the earlier rounds. This is why it’s important for Grant to get Adamek looking scared immediately because Grant can then win rounds that way.

Grant needs to show his heart by being willing to take some shots to go after Adamek. He can’t just let Adamek circle the ring all night long throwing jabs and occasional power shots without answering back with his own big punches. If Grant can tag Adamek with something big and get his nose bleeding and eyes cut, the fight might end up a lot more competitive.

Adamek tends to have nose problems when he fights and often looks like he just climbed out of a car wreck. Grant needs to do whatever he can to land power shots to Adamek’s vulnerable face to see if he can start distorting his features and get the blood flowing.