By Ron Hansen: Heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (39-1, 27 KO’s) is looking to move up the heavyweight ranks with a fight against Chris Arreola (28-1) on April 24th. Adamek, 33, knows he has his work cut out for him in this fight. At 6’1” 214, Adamek is little bigger than Arreola’s last victim, Brian Minto. Arreola may not have the boxing skills that Adamek possess, but at 6’4” 250, Arreola will have a huge size and strength advantage and may end up crushing the smallish Adamek. It looks like Adamek is in a real hurry to get a title shot. Adamek might be sorry for his rush if he gets crushed by Arreola.
Adamek recently moved up to the heavyweight division in October, taking out 41-year-old Andrew Golota in the 5th round. Adamek did a good job in winning the fight, to be sure, but there’s a huge difference in beating an old fighter like Golota and someone like Arreola. Even though Arreola has weight issues, he very likely will be too big for Adamek to compete with at this point. Adamek would be better served to work his way gradually up the heavyweight chain against some of the smaller heavyweights before taking on a huge guy like Arreola. Adamek doesn’t have great hand speed and seems tailor made for Arreola.
Adamek might have a chance against WBA heavyweight title holder David Haye, but not against the Klitschko brothers. He’s just too small to compete against those giants. If he can land something big against Haye, then Adamek has a chance of beating him. However, I suspect he won’t make it past Arreola in April, so this will be a mute point.
In an article with Boxingnews.Pl, Adamek had this to say: “If HBO is calling us to propose a specific date and the opponent, we know that the fight will surely be. They watched as a fight. I’m in the U.S. for a year, and yesterday officially offered me a fight with Arreola. If HBO is calling for Ziggy everything is already done. The heads of HBO has already talked with the promoter Arreola, who agreed to fight, and then phoned to us. They knew that we were waiting to fight with someone from the top. It’s not that they are calling to someone with loose question, just call now with a concrete proposal. We have adopted this suggestion, Arreola and so the battle will take place. ” – said Tomasz Adamek