Adamek in tough test against Walker

By Boxing News - 08/30/2012 - Comments

Image: Adamek in tough test against WalkerBy Dan Ambrose: Tomasz Adamek (46-2, 28 KO’s) could have more than he bargained for against journeyman Travis Walker 39-7-1, 31 KO’s) on September 8th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Adamek, 35, picked out the 6’4 1/2″ Walker to fight as another stepping stone for a title shot. Walker, however, doesn’t want to be a stepping stone and he’s a real threat to beating Adamek if he can land his right hand.

If this fight had taken place two years ago I wouldn’t give Walker much of any chance at winning because Adamek was a lot faster than and harder to hit. However, he’s slowed down in the last year and he’s now a lot more stationary than he ever was. He’s also very easy to hit with right hands, as we saw in his fight with Eddie Chambers last June. Chambers didn’t have any power and wasn’t able to hurt Adamek despite landing right hands all night long for 12 rounds. Walker can punch, and if he’s able to connect with his right hand as frequently as Chambers did then he’ll have a great chance of scoring a knockout.

Adamek has faced a lot of stiffs since moving up to the heavyweight division in 2009. Most of them painfully slow and had poor work rates. He’s faced three big punchers in his time at heavyweight in fights against Vitali Klitschko, Michael Grant and Chris Arreola. Vitali stopped Adamek in the 10th round in their fight last year, whereas Grant and Arreola were both able to stagger Adamek in losing efforts. Grant might have had a chance to KO Adamek if he had let his hands ago with more frequency instead of standing like a statue for 12 rounds and letting Adamek do pretty much whatever he wanted in the fight. Arreola injured his left hand in the 2nd round and that took away one of his primary weapons. Arreola was still able to stagger Adamek with his rights but he badly missed his left hook in that fight.

Walker is a lot more busier fighter than Grant is, and he’s also not prone to suffering hand injuries like Arreola. This means that Adamek is going to be getting hit a lot in this fight and he is going to need a good chin if he’s to have a chance at winning it. Adamek has to get Walker out of there as early as possible because if he leaves him in there for too long he’ll be giving Walker a lot of chances of winning the fight. In a 12 round fight the odds are high that Walker will land one of his big right hands that will hurt Adamek at some point.



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