10.06.07 – By Richard Rodriguez: Former WBC light heavweight champion Tamasz Adamek (32-1, 22 KO’s) halted Luis Pineda (21-6, 18 KO’s) in the 7th round to win the IBO cruiserweight title on Saturday night at the Spodek arena, Katowice, Slaskie, in Poland. Adamek, 30, looked nothing short of sensational in his new weight class, moving and fighting like a light heavyweight and appearing very light on his feet for the entire bout..
Indeed, Adamek spend much of the fight jabbing and moving, looking like a young Ali as he completely outclassed Luis Pineda from Panama. From the opening bell, the class levels between the two boxers were painfully obvious, as Adamek carved up Pineda, 33, with lighting fast combinations, and then quickly dancing out of range as the Panamanian would attempt to retaliate with big shot of his own.
Only four months ago, a weight drained Adamek had lost his WBC light heavyweight title to Chad Dawson by 12-round unanimous decision. The loss was a wakeup call for the 6’2 ½” Adamek, who realized that he could no longer starve himself to make the light heavyweight division without taking away from his performance. At the new 200 lb cruiserweight limit, Adamek looked powerful, much more so than in his previous world title bouts against Dawson and Paul Briggs.
In the first round, Adamek quickly established the pattern for which the whole bout would be fought, as he beat the slower Panamanian to the punch with a rain of jabs and left-right combinations that sent Pineda in full retreat. Despite Adamek’s dominance in this round, Pineda was able to land several good body shots, but that was the extent of it.
In rounds two and three, Adamek continued fighting on the outside, jabbing and picking his spots where he would unleash 2-3 punch combinations before Pineda would know what hit him. Adamek moved constantly starting in the 3rd round, changing directions quickly and preventing Pineda from getting a bead on him. All the while, Adamek was pumping out jabs, and mixing them with one-two combinations. Unlike other European fighters, like, for example, Felix Sturm, Adamek was unafraid to mix it up with Pineda, which kept the Polish crowd from growing restless.
In the fourth round, the fight suddenly turned into a blowout, as Adamek, looking more and more confident, unloaded deadly accurate left hooks and straight right shots to the head of Pineda, who by this time might have felt like he was one big Piñata.
In rounds five and six, Adamek continued to badly outclass Pineda, working angles to get in different punches, while avoiding Pineda’s slow return fire, which was becoming more and more infrequent by this time in the bout. In the sixth, Pineda landed a rare punch, a huge right hand that landed flush to face of Adamek, but it had no effect on him and he continued giving Pineda a boxing lesson.
In the seventh round, Adamek started off the round landing several jabs to the face of Pineda, backing him up towards his corner. At that point, Adamek landed a beautiful left-right combination, which badly hurt Pineda, making his knees buckle. Adamek quickly went in for the kill, and hit Pineda with 10 unanswered shots to the head, causing the referee to step in and call a halt to the bout.