By Dan Ambrose: With Odlanier Solis recently following out of their scheduled December 22nd fight, heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (47-2, 29 KO’s) will now be facing 36-year-old former IBF cruiserweight champion Steven Cunningham (25-4, 12 KO’s) in a rematch on December 22nd at the Sands Casino Resort, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Like most of Adamek’s fights, he’s got a clear advantage over Cunningham going into the fight due to Cunningham having lost two out of his last three fights and more importantly fighting for only the second time as a heavyweight.

That’s going to be tough on Cunningham, because he only weighed 207 lbs for first fight at heavyweight last month against journeyman Jason Gavern. While Cunningham did win the fight by a lopsided 10 round unanimous decision, he didn’t look powerful at this new weight and he appears not to have carried his power up with him when he moved up from cruiserweight.

Adamek is in the same boat in that regard, as he didn’t bring his power up with him either when he moved up to heavyweight from cruiserweight in 2009. However, he’s been fighting at heavyweight a lot longer than Cunningham and he’s bigger than him by close to 15 pounds. That could be significant when it comes time to fight on December 22nd.

Cunningham lost to Adamek by a 12 round split decision in December 2008. Adamek was getting out-boxed through most of the fight, but each time it looked like Cunningham was on his way to victory, Adamek would knock him down with a big right hand. That was the difference in the fight. However, I don’t know that Adamek will be able to do that now because he’s not a puncher at heavyweight like he was at cruiserweight.

It’s unclear what Cunningham hopes to accomplish at heavyweight. He’s much too thin to beat any of the top heavyweights and unless his promoters keep his far away from some of the better heavyweight contenders like Kubrat Pulev, Cunningham will never get a title shot. He’s getting old and he’ll have problems at this weight.