By James Slater – As fight fans know by now, former 175 and 200-pound champion Tomasz Adamek, now campaigning as a heavyweight, scored his second heavyweight stoppage win last night in Newark, halting the always-game Vinny Maddalone in the 5th-round.
Now 4-0(2) as a heavyweight, the 34-year-old showed he has retained his incredibly fast hand speed up at just below 220-pounds. Adamek landed triple jabs against Maddalone and his combination punching was excellent also. In fact, when the New York warrior was interviewed by Fightnews.com moments after being stopped while still on his feet, he said that without a doubt, Adamek is the fastest fighter he has ever faced, at least in terms of hand speed..
Maddalone has been in with fellow contenders/former champions Denis Boytsov, Jean Marc Mormeck and Evander Holyfield – and according to Vinny, none of these guys has the blinding speed of punch the tough and talented Pole has in his arsenal.
The question now is, will this speed of hand – along with all the other fine attributes the now 43-1(28) heavyweight contender has – take him all the way to the top? The word is (according to the Polish media with whom Adamek spoke after last night’s impressive victory), Tomasz will take another meaningful fight in around March time, and then hopefully go for a shot at one of the world titles after that. It’s still unknown just who Adamek will fight next, but the three names that have been mentioned are Roy Jones Junior, Mormeck and Boytsov.
I think most fans will agree with me when I say an Adamek-Boystov clash is by far the most interesting option of the three. Both unbeaten heavyweights have genuine hopes of becoming world champion and a final eliminator between the two, with the winner to get a crack a Wladimir Kitschko (or his successor), would make perfect sense. An Adamek-Jones fight would be sad to see now that the once awesome Jones is so faded. While an Adamek-Mormeck fight, though not a terrible idea by any stretch, would be of interest mainly to see if Adamek could score a KO over the currently 3-0 heavyweight.
But whoever Adamek fights next, it is good news that he is around today and it is also good news that he plans on staying active. In a time when we see few exciting heavyweight battles fought at speed and pace, Adamek is the exception.
“Goral” looked good last night, and the fight was never boring. Some critics argue how the win over Maddalone doesn’t mean too much for Adamek, but any stoppage win over any tough guy means something. And let’s not forget, Boytsov and Mormeck were unable to stop Maddalone. Let’s now see (in an ideal world) if the unbeaten Russian can stop Adamek’s march to the title!