aquariusone
08-22-2010, 11:34 AM
Latest from the NY Times:
The promoters at Main Events keep putting bigger and bigger challenges in front of Tomasz Adamek as he makes his way up the heavyweight ladder. He faced his biggest one yet in 6-7, 261-pound Michael Grant before a raucous and partisan Polish crowd of 10,972 at the Rock in Newark Saturday night.
Adamek, of Gilowice, Poland, scaled that new height when he scored a 12-round unanimous decision over Grant that paved the way for a heavyweight title shot against one of the Klitschkos, who are similar in size to Grant, or David Haye.
It was not an easy fight and Grant acquitted himself well, even though he couldn't match Adamek's pace and tempo. All three judges gave Adamek (42-1, 27 KOs) a wide margin of victory, with one judge scoring it 118-111, another 118-110 and the third 117-111. The Daily News scored it 116-112 for Adamek.
Grant (46-4, 34 KOs) was seven inches taller and outweighed Adamek by 44 pounds (261 to 217), but he wasn't able to press those two advantages. Grant seemed content throwing his heavy jab. But he didn't seem inclined to throw his right hand. If his plan was to beat Adamek with the 1-2, he was short by one. When Grant did land the right in the third round, he sent Adamek sailing across the ring into the ropes. Adamek had proven against his previous four heavyweight opponents that he has a sturdy chin, and Grant needed to land a few of those rights in succession to get the job done.
Adamek was the much busier boxer, throwing combinations and landing while Grant took long breaks trying to determine whether to unleash his right hand. A cut opened along Adamek's left eye in the eighth round, but it didn't look to be problematic.
This was the biggest stage that Grant had been on since he was stopped by Dominick Guinn on a seventh-round TKO at Atlantic City in 2003.
A year after opening his campaign in the heavyweight division, Grant represented the final steppingstone for Adamek, who has won titles at light-heavyweight and cruiserweight. The fight was designed as a primer for matches against Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, the giant brothers from Ukraine who control three of the four major heavyweight titles and mainly fight in Germany.
Grant lost in his only title match when Lennox Lewis KO'd him in the second round in 2000. But at age 38, with 10 more years of experience, Grant was looking to regain his old form and get another shot at the title. An impressive win over Adamek might have put him in the contender conversation.
ALI ROCKS: Brooklyn welterweight Sadam Ali (9-0, 5 KOs), a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic boxing team, KO'd Lenin Arroyo (20-13-1, 4 KOs) at 2:46 of the fifth round with a vicious left hook to the body. Arroyo had no answer for Ali's speed as he spent most of the fight swinging at air where Ali once stood. ... In his pro debut, junior lightweight Shemuel Pagan of Brooklyn scored a lopsided four-round decision over Raul Rivera (0-3).
The promoters at Main Events keep putting bigger and bigger challenges in front of Tomasz Adamek as he makes his way up the heavyweight ladder. He faced his biggest one yet in 6-7, 261-pound Michael Grant before a raucous and partisan Polish crowd of 10,972 at the Rock in Newark Saturday night.
Adamek, of Gilowice, Poland, scaled that new height when he scored a 12-round unanimous decision over Grant that paved the way for a heavyweight title shot against one of the Klitschkos, who are similar in size to Grant, or David Haye.
It was not an easy fight and Grant acquitted himself well, even though he couldn't match Adamek's pace and tempo. All three judges gave Adamek (42-1, 27 KOs) a wide margin of victory, with one judge scoring it 118-111, another 118-110 and the third 117-111. The Daily News scored it 116-112 for Adamek.
Grant (46-4, 34 KOs) was seven inches taller and outweighed Adamek by 44 pounds (261 to 217), but he wasn't able to press those two advantages. Grant seemed content throwing his heavy jab. But he didn't seem inclined to throw his right hand. If his plan was to beat Adamek with the 1-2, he was short by one. When Grant did land the right in the third round, he sent Adamek sailing across the ring into the ropes. Adamek had proven against his previous four heavyweight opponents that he has a sturdy chin, and Grant needed to land a few of those rights in succession to get the job done.
Adamek was the much busier boxer, throwing combinations and landing while Grant took long breaks trying to determine whether to unleash his right hand. A cut opened along Adamek's left eye in the eighth round, but it didn't look to be problematic.
This was the biggest stage that Grant had been on since he was stopped by Dominick Guinn on a seventh-round TKO at Atlantic City in 2003.
A year after opening his campaign in the heavyweight division, Grant represented the final steppingstone for Adamek, who has won titles at light-heavyweight and cruiserweight. The fight was designed as a primer for matches against Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, the giant brothers from Ukraine who control three of the four major heavyweight titles and mainly fight in Germany.
Grant lost in his only title match when Lennox Lewis KO'd him in the second round in 2000. But at age 38, with 10 more years of experience, Grant was looking to regain his old form and get another shot at the title. An impressive win over Adamek might have put him in the contender conversation.
ALI ROCKS: Brooklyn welterweight Sadam Ali (9-0, 5 KOs), a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic boxing team, KO'd Lenin Arroyo (20-13-1, 4 KOs) at 2:46 of the fifth round with a vicious left hook to the body. Arroyo had no answer for Ali's speed as he spent most of the fight swinging at air where Ali once stood. ... In his pro debut, junior lightweight Shemuel Pagan of Brooklyn scored a lopsided four-round decision over Raul Rivera (0-3).