Is Tomas Adamek ready to fight for the heavyweight title in 2013?

By Boxing News - 01/06/2013 - Comments

adamek45By Dan Ambrose: #3 IBF, #9 WBA, Tomasz Adamek (48-2, 29 KO’s) is close to becoming the mandatory challenger for IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2013, if Adamek can beat undefeated 6’4 ½” Kubrat Pulev this year in their IBF eliminator bout for the #1 mandatory position. However, Adamek has looked poor recently in winning two out of his last three fights by huge controversy in victories over Eddie Chambers and Steve Cunningham.

Adamek looked like he lost both of those fights, and even if you give benefit of the doubt and say he won, he still looked awful in both. Adamek didn’t look ready to fight either of the Klitschkos, and we already saw what happened when he fought Vitali Klitschko in September 2011. Adamek was toyed with and taken out in the 10th round in perhaps Vitali’s easiest fights since he recaptured the World Boxing Council heavyweight title in 2008 with a win over Samuel Peter.

It’s still too early to tell where the Adamek-Pulev fight will take place, but it would be so sad if Adamek were to win another controversial decision to put him in as the mandatory challenger for Wladimir. I think I’d rather see someone that is winning their fights without controversy facing Wladimir than to see him matched a guy that many boxing fans think has lost two out of his last three fights.

If Adamek does beat Pulev in early 2013, Adamek is going to have major problems when he faces Wladimir. That is going to be such a mismatch, and maybe even worse than Wladimir’s recent victories over the over-matched Jean Marc Mormeck and Tony Thompson. Adamek doesn’t have the size at 6’1” to compete with Wladimir, and he’s really hurt himself by putting on weight recently with the belief that it would help him against the bigger heavyweights.

Adamek is so much slower now and he’s tagged so much more than ever did. One of the things that used to help Adamek at heavyweight was his ability to move around the ring. He’s no longer doing this and is just going straight at his opposition and trying to out-work them. He’s getting tagged a lot and it’s going to be a terrible fight when and if he gets past Pulev to face Wladimir.

I don’t expect that Adamek will be able to beat Pulev, aside from it being another controversial decision. I just don’t see Adamek having the size to compete against the big Bulgarian Pulev, but I do think he can beat by controversy because that seems to be the norm now.



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