By Dan Ambrose: IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KO’s) will likely be facing Britain’s Derek Chisora (14-0, 9 KO’s) on December 11th in Germany. Chisora is likely to be easily beaten by Klitschko without too many problems. Wladimir would like to fight WBA heavyweight champion David Haye. However, the British heavyweight appears to be in the milking stage with his title and hasn’t shown a whole lot of interest in taking on Wladimir or his brother Vitali Klitschko. Without a lot of interesting heavyweight contenders for Wladimir to fight, he is intrigued with fighting his number #1 ranked WBO challenger Tomasz Adamek (42-1, 27 KO’s) in 2011, that is, if Adamek is willing to fight Wladimir.

Just because Adamek is the number #1 challenger doesn’t mean he’ll be interested in facing Wladimir and suffering will likely be a knockout loss. Adamek, 33, is also ranked number #9 by the WBA, and David Haye might suddenly take an interest in fighting Adamek before Wladimir. Adamek would have a much better chance of beating Haye than Wladimir or his brother Vitali, the WBC heavyweight champion.

Since moving up to the heavyweight division from the cruiserweight ranks, Adamek has carefully worked his way up the rankings by fighting mostly beatable fighters like Andre Golota, Jason Estrada, Chris Arreola, and Michael Grant. Adamek will continue along those lines in December when he faces B level heavyweight Vinny Maddalone. Adamek should win that fight and he’ll then be in position to challenge Wladimir for his titles.

In an article at Sportsillustrated.cnn.com, Wladimir said “I would love to fight Adamek. He’s been building himself up really well.” In other words, Adamek has been facing B level fighters and winning. However, Adamek has been hurt in almost every fight he’s had at heavyweight except the Golota fight. Estrada, Arreola and Grant all staggered Adamek. The fight with Grant was really a close call for Adamek, because Grant had Adamek hurt on a number of occasions, including the 12th round. Adamek was able to finish on his feet, but it wasn’t a good sign that a fighter in the class of Grant was able to give Adamek so many problems and hurt him.