By Allan Fox: In what is becoming increasingly rate, heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (45-2, 28 KO’s) will actually be facing a good heavyweight Eddie Chambers (36-2, 18 KO’s) on June 16th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. This is kind of a departure for the 35-year-old Adamek in the way that he worked his way to a heavyweight title shot last time.

In getting a title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko last September – and getting blown out by Vitali – Adamek mostly fought 2nd tier fighters of little quality to get his shot against Vitali. The one exception was Adamek’s win over an out of shape and injured Chris Arreola, who damaged his left hand early in the fight and had to rely on his right hand for the remainder of the fight. Adamek moved up from the cruiserweight division and won six fights at heavyweight against the following heavyweights – Jason Estrada, Andre Golota, Michael Grant, Arreola, Vinny Maddalone, and Kevin McBride – before facing Vitali and getting blown out in a one-sided defeat.

Since losing to Vitali, Adamek has come back to beat 2nd tier fighter Nagy Aguilera by a 10 round unanimous decision last March. It looked then that Adamek was going to fall back in his old routine of facing lesser heavyweights to get another shot against one of the Klitschkos – and get flattened again. But it’s nice to see Adamek actually taking a challenge by facing Chambers, who while he probably is no longer among the top fighters now in the division, he’s still a decent threat. The heavyweights have gotten better recently, and Chambers would likely get destroyed if he were to face guys like Robert Helenius, Tyson Fury, David Price, Denis Boytsov, and Kubrat Pulev.

Chambers fought for a world title against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in March 2010, and didn’t do too well, getting stopped in the 12th round. Chambers didn’t fight again for almost a year after the loss to Wladimir until coming back to beat Derrec Rossy by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in February in a IBF heavyweight title eliminator bout. Chambers has since then stayed out of the ring for the last year, and by the time Chambers faces Adamek in June, he’ll have been out of the ring 16 months. So that’s too long layoff of 11 months and 16 months with one soft fight in between against Rossy. It’s looking less impressive Adamek facing an incredibly rusty Chambers. You have to wonder what’s the problem with Chambers. Why so inactive?