Adamek won’t get past Pulev

By Boxing News - 12/24/2012 - Comments

pulev86By Dan Ambrose: Tomasz Adamek (48-2, 29 KO’s) better enjoy his controversial 12 round split decision win over Steven Cunningham (25-5, 12 KO’s) for as long as possible because the party will be over for Adamek in his next fight when he faces unbeaten #1 IBF Kubrat Pulev (17-0, 9 KO’s) in the final International Boxing Federation heavyweight eliminator bout in early 2013 to determine who will become the mandatory challenger for IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Adamek, 36, is starting to show serious signs of aging in his last three fights against Eddie Chambers, Travis Walker and Steve Cunningham. A lot of boxing fans think that Adamek lost to both Chambers and Cunningham, and I’m in full agreement with them. I thought Adamek looked slow in those fights and was beaten to the punch all night long.

Some of that could be from the fact that Adamek put on close to 10 pounds after his loss to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko last year in September, and the extra weight hasn’t improved Adamek’s speed or power. It’s made him slower and kind of lethargic looking. Travis Walker knocked Adamek down hard in their fight in September, and while Adamek got up to stop Walker in the 5th, it was kind of unsettling to see Adamek down from a journeyman fighter.

The 6’4” Kubrat Pulev fought Walker and dominated him by a lopsided 12 round last year in November in a fight where Pulev had no problems handling Walker’s occasional hard shot.

Adamek is going to have problems with Pulev’s size and his excellent jab. Pulev is a big heavyweight and he’s not going to be someone that Adamek can dominate by walking him down like he’s been doing against his mostly weak opponents.

Adamek will have to change his game plan against Pulev and become more of a runner like he was when he first moved up to the heavyweight division in 2009. I don’t think that strategy would work against Pulev, but it’s probably the only chance Adamek has in beating him because he won’t be able to go straight at Pulev.

Adamek will be walking into Pulev’s jabs all night long, and that would be a bad thing for Adamek. Pulev can score knockouts just with his jab because he really puts his weight behind them and they make a mess out of his opponents’ faces.

I see Pulev easily beating Adamek and weeding him out of the chase for another world title shot. Pulev has too much size, too much power and too much skill for the 6’1″ Adamek.

It’s a really bad sign that Adamek is having to go life and death against so many of his recent opponents, because Pulev is a big jump up from those guys. If Adamek can’t even get past Cunningham and Chambers without deep controversy then he doesn’t stand a chance against Pulev.



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