By Ken Neir: Former IBF cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek (40-1, 27 KO’s) looked far from impressive as he labored to a hard fought 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night against 2004 U.S. Olympian Jason Estrada (16-3, 4 KO’s) at the Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey. Adamek, 32, came into the fight weighing an all time high of 220, and fought as if the weight was a problem for him. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 116-112, and 115-113. Adamek took a great deal of punishment from the light-hitting Estrada, and seemed to be unable to get out of the way of any of Estrada’s shots.
It’s fortunate that Estrada wasn’t a huge puncher, because chances are he would have stopped Adamek if he had a little more power behind his shots. Despite being noted as a puncher while fighting in the light heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions, Adamek’s punches appeared weak in comparison to Estrada’s shots.
Adamek made up for his lack of power by throwing a lot of punches, which enabled him to stay in control of the fight. However, it still was a very close fight and had Estrada thrown more punches in the last five rounds, he would have likely taken the fight. Adamek’s face was forced to take the full brunt of Estrada’s shots, as Adamek appeared to block a lot of Estrada’s punches with his face instead of his gloves..
Estrada had Adamek backing up in the 10th after hitting him with a right hand to the head. Adamek covered up on the ropes as Estrada briefly teed off on him. However, Adamek came back in the 11th and 12th round, barely getting the better of Estrada with combinations that had little power on them. Estrada continued to land the harder shots in the last two rounds, but didn’t throw enough.
Overall, Adamek looked pretty bad. I don’t like his chances against heavyweight contender Chris Arreola in April. I think Adamek will be destroyed if he takes that fight. Arreola appears much too powerful for him, and I think based on how Adamek looked tonight, he would be destroyed within six rounds. At best, I think Adamek might be able to survive for eight rounds if he ran from Arreola, but that’s about all. Adamek would be better off moving back down to the cruiserweight division. He looks fat and slow at 220, and doesn’t belong at heavyweight in my view. Adamek might do well against some of the smaller heavyweights, but against big punchers like Arreola, and, of course, the Klitschko brothers, I see Adamek getting blown out of the ring. If Adamek doesn’t move back down to the cruiserweight division, I’d like to see him against someone like Alexander Povetkin or Odlanier Solis. I don’t think he could beat either of them, but at least it would give Adamek a good judge of what he’s up against in the heavyweight division.