By Dan Ambrose: In a tune-up fight before his big September fight against one of the Klitschko brothers, former two division world champion Tomasz Adamek (43-1, 28 KO’s) will be facing either 6’6” Kevin McBride (35-8-1, 29 KO’s) or 6’6” Nicolai Firtha (19-8-1, 8 KO’s), according to Polish news sources.
Adamek, 6’1 ½”, obviously wants to face someone that will be a similar height as the 6’6” Wladimir Klitschko and the 6’7” Vitali Klitschko. The problem is that neither McBride nor Firtha are very good fighters and the preparation that they’ll be giving Adamek is pretty much nil.
Adamek will likely practice his running around the ring against one of them, and try to use an in and out style of attack to get ready for the Klitschko fight. In other words, Adamek will continue to fight just as he’s been fighting since moving up to the heavyweight division in 2009.
Adamek certainly isn’t changing much by going after McBride or Firtha in terms of facing lower quality fighters. Since Adamek moved up in weight from cruiserweight, he’s faced the following heavyweights: Andre Golota, Jason Estrada, Chris Arreola, Michael Grant and Vinny Maddalone. What’s missing from this bunch is quality.
This isn’t the best type of heavyweights to prepare one to take on the Klitschkos and it’s interesting that Adamek didn’t bother to take on someone like Samuel Peter, Denis Boytsov, Odlanier Solis, Ruslan Chagaev, Alexander Dimitrenko, Alexander Povetkin, Eddie Chambers, Robert Helenius or Tony Thompson. After all, those heavyweights are a lot better than the 2nd tier fighters that Adamek has been facing since he moved up in weight. It’s convenient that Adamek has failed to fight any of them.
Whether Adamek faces McBride or Firtha, he’s going to be in shock when he steps in the ring against one of the Klitschkos because the quality of Adamek’s heavyweight competition has likely stunted his growth to the point where he won’t be nearly ready for what he’s about to face. It’s like studying addition and subtraction before going into a calculus exam. Adamek has really short changed himself by going so soft since moving up in weight and it’s going to hurt him against the Klitschkos.
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