By Dan Ambrose: Former two division world champion Tomasz Adamek (42-1, 27 KO’s) doesn’t see himself taking a beating against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko the way that Shannon Briggs did last Saturday night. On the contrary, the 33-year-old Adamek thinks he would give Vitali problems with his speed, movement and pace. In an article at Fightnews.com, Adamek says “Against me, he [Vitali] would be more tired after three rounds than he would be fighting Briggs…Much faster fight, much more energy spent to defend himself, not from one but multiple punches. We are taking totally different here.” It’s hard to imagine Adamek doing any better than Briggs, however.

If all you have to go by is how Adamek looked in his fights at heavyweight against Jason Estrada, Chris Arreola and 38-year-old Michael Grant, I’d say Adamek is probably going to get knocked out within the first six rounds. Adamek was hurt in each of his last three fights, and in his bouts with Arreola and Grant, he was hurt multiple times despite not getting that much. Adamek looked particularly bad against the 6’7″ Grant, who had Adamek hurt on the few occasions he actually threw any punches. Grant did almost zero in the fight, just standing there and not letting his hands go. But when he did throw punches, he had Adamek hurt, busting up and running.

I don’t think a fight with Adamek and Vitali would be very good. In fact, I think it would be much worse than Briggs-Klitschko, because Adamek running around on the outside and would quickly get nailed, start bleeding and then get stopped. I give credit to Adamek for beating the limited fighters that he’s been matched up with, but I think he would be destroyed the Klitschkos, David Haye, Denis Boytsov, Odlanier Solis, Samuel Peter, Alexander Povetkin, Eddie Chambers and possibly Kevin Johnson.

Adamek will be facing 2nd tier heavyweight Vinny Maddalone (33-6, 24 KO’s) on December 9th at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey. This is a slight step down from the types of fighters that Adamek has bene fighting. You have to wonder why. Is it because they’re worried he might lose after looking so bad against Grant? Maddalone is only 6’2″, a lot smaller than Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko. Adamek faced Grant in order to prepare for fighting the Klitschkos. Why is he now fighting a much smaller fighter? Has he given up on the idea of beating them? This is someone that Adamek should have fought when he first started out at heavyweight, not now after he’s faced Estrada, Arreola and Grant. It looks like a big step back for Adamek.