By James Slater: It has been officially announced that former light-heavyweight and cruiserweight ruler-cum heavyweight title contender Tomasz Adamek will face fellow heavyweight campaigner “Fast” Eddie Chambers on June 16th in the Polish hero’s adopted backyard of Newark, New Jersey.
An excellent match-up, one that has the distinct look of an incredibly tough to call 50-50 affair, the winner will be hoping to be a step closer to a second crack at the heavyweight championship.
35-year-old Adamek, the older man by six years, may enter the ring as a slight favourite (seeing how he will be fighting in front of his passionate fans, at a venue he has won many fights at), but Chambers has to rank as the fastest, slickest heavyweight “Goral,” 45-2(28) has ever fought to date. Going against Chambers, 36-2(18) may be the fact that he has fought just once since his March 2010 KO loss to Wladimir Klitschko. If ring-rust does prove to be a problem for Chambers, Adamek (the exact same height as him at 6’1” and possessing an exact same reach as Chambers at 75”) could prove to be too lively for him.
I see a definite distance fight here. Chambers is more slickster than punisher; while Adamek has scored just two stoppages over heavyweight opponents (one of them being an ancient Andrew Golota). Scheduled for ten rounds (according to Boxrec.com), I think the June fight will go the limit. The action should prove to be highly entertaining and the class on display promises to be of the highest order.
Aside from his 175-pound loss to “Bad” Chad Dawson (way back in early 2007), Adamek has been beaten only by Vitali Klitschko. Aside from “going to sleep” in a fight he was winning against Alexander Povetkin (ultimately losing on points), Chambers has been beaten only by Wladimir Klitschko. The June 16th winner may well emerge as the next challenger for one of the two all-conquering brothers.
The weights of the two men will be interesting to see on fight night. In his last fight, a wide ten-round UD over Nagy Aguilera back on March 24th, Adamek scaled a fraction over 222-pounds. In his last fight, a Feb. 2011 points win over Derric Rossy, Chambers scaled 208. Adamek, then, may have a considerable weight advantage in this one. That aside, the two men match up almost identically.
A very tough fight to pick, I lean ever so slightly towards Chambers.