By Jason Kim: Heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (42-1, 27 KO’s) has decided to take on another soft opponent in 2nd tier heavyweight Vinny Maddalone (33-6, 24 KO’s), who the 33-year-old Adamek will be facing on December 9th at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey. Adamek is clearly playing it safe and not wanting to ruin his chance at getting a good payday against one of the Klitschko brothers, who hold three of the four heavyweight title belts as of now. Adamek looked poor in his last fight against 38-year-old Michael Grant in August, beating him by a 12 round decision but getting hurt several times in the fight by the aging giant.

Rather than test his luck against a top tier heavyweight for a change, Adamek has decided to go the B route again with the 36-year-old Maddalone. It’s pretty easy to see why, because Adamek just doesn’t appear to have the size or the power to beat the Klitschko brothers and would likely be knocked out if he were to fight top contenders in the division like Denis Boytsov, Alexander Povetkin, Alexander Dimitrenko, Samuel Peter, and Odlanier Solis. As bad as Peter looked in losing to Wladimir Klitschko last weekend, Adamek would likely do far worse because he would likely get stopped early by some of the big shots that Wladimir was hitting Peter with in that fight.

Adamek is a popular fighter with a huge fan base, and they’ll likely turn out in high numbers to see him destroy the little known Maddalone. It’s too bad that Adamek isn’t interested in testing himself and improving as a heavyweight, because it’s hard to see what he’ll get from beating the 6’2” Maddalone. This guy is much smaller than the Klitschko brothers, isn’t a huge puncher, and fights nothing like them. This is a step backwards for Adamek if he really wants to beat the Klitschko brothers.

The thought behind Adamek facing the 6’7” Michael Grant was that he would help prepare Adamek for facing the Klitschkos. I don’t know how fighting the much smaller Maddalone will help prepare Adamek for fighting the Klitschko brothers, unless Adamek is now thinking about fighting the 6’3” WBA heavyweight champion David Haye instead. In that case, Maddalone would be the perfect height, although not anyway similar to Haye in terms of hand speed or power. He’s much slower and doesn’t have the same kind of power that Haye possesses.

Adamek may have stopped the experimenting with large heavyweights after his close call with Grant. Adamek took a beating in that fight, and there may not be any heavyweights out there of that size that Adamek can beat with a 100% certainty. There will always be the chance that Adamek could get knocked out or beaten up if he faces large heavyweights. That’s probably why they’ve chosen a smaller guy for him to fight instead of another big heavyweight. Grant exposed Adamek’s lack of size and power in a big way.

When Adamek was on the outside, he was taking shots from Grant and unable to land his own punches due to his limited reach. Adamek had to rush Grant each time he wanted to land his own shots, and Grant was able to time Adamek and catch him coming in a lot. Against the Klitschkos, Adamek would be pounded on the outside, and when he would come rushing in, he would get clobbered on the way in. I doubt that Adamek would make it 4 rounds, even if he ran the entire time.