His ring entrances evoke deafening roars in American arenas. His exciting ring style is multi-dimensional and has produced a fine professional record of 38-1 with 26 KO’s. His childhood boxing background is the stuff of a Hollywood movie – boxing fan father dies in bus accident when only son is two, before he passes, he tells mother he wants son to be boxer, boy Tomasz later takes up boxing at 12 and then becomes a world champion. How proud would his father be?

Tomasz Adamek doesn’t have to be manufactured or developed – he is a boxing superstar right now.

The IBF Cruiserweight champion electrified boxing again with his latest appearance – a fifth-round stoppage win over Bobby Gunn at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ for his second successful title defense. Though the bout was not very competitive, it was still a master-class performance from Adamek who has a versatile and effective style which ALWAYS makes for interesting duels.

American television networks are making a mistake by not signing this bonafide star who does not need to be protected, coddled or begged to fight the most dangerous competition. “I’m a warrior. Just put the guys in front of me and I will fight them,” said Adamek after his impressive victory. “TV calls what happens. If it’s Steve Cunningham fight next then Hopkins, okay. If it’s Hopkins fight next then Cunningham, okay.”

HBO Boxing’s Kery Davis was in attendance on Saturday night for Adamek-Gunn and was observed in a long, one-on-one discussion with Main Events boss Kathy Duva at ringside. You have to conclude Davis was mightily impressed by his experience at Adamek-Mania – and now after Showtime’s huge splash last week with the announcement of their super-middleweight tournament, Davis and HBO need to come up with something big – and fast. With all due respect, Malignaggi-Diaz, Berto-Collazo II and Mayweather-Marquez are no-win, lackluster situations for HBO which has been lacking lately in using it’s heft and resources to create innovations (why did they not try to start a welterweight unification tournament with Mosley, Cotto, Berto?)

With prospective fights with Hopkins, Roy Jones, a rematches with Cunningham and Chad Dawson, a move up to heavyweight, Adamek is a true superstar champion who always fills arenas and never puts on a bad show – no matter what level the opponent. Bobby Gunn was more than impressed by what he saw in Adamek. “He’s a class act in and out of the ring. You should be proud of him, “Gunn said at the post-fight press conference. “This guy is a great fighter and a class act. The best man won. God bless him. I hope he does great things in life. Here’s the champ…”

At that moment, Adamek entered the room and Gunn applauded his conqueror by clapping his hands, and then went over and embraced him again, just like he did in the ring. Gunn also kissed Adamek on the cheek, and told him. “I gave you a good fight. I saw a picture of you with your two daughters. I wish you the best, you’re great. You’re a great champion.”

Adamek is as humble a champion as you will ever see, and he was touched by Gunn’s gracious respect. I have never witnessed a defeated challenger express so much respect and admiration – in such a classy manner – as Bobby Gunn showed Adamek after the fight Saturday night. The closest examples I can think of was when James Toney and Vassily Jirov embraced three separate times in the ring after their classic cruiserweight showdown, which ironically, was also for the same IBF title. Another was when Mike Tyson said, “I just want to touch you,” as he went over to embrace Evander Holyfield at the press conference after their first clash.

Kery Davis has been around boxing a long time, he has seen a lot of true champions and manufactured ones. After what he saw on Saturday night at the Prudential Center, he should know all he needs to know about Tomasz Adamek.

More Adamek post-fight quotes:

On the decision to stop the fight: “Health is always very, very important, though the fans wanted to see more.”

“My left jab is my number one weapon – after the straight right shot.”

On the trickiness of Gunn’s style: “I’m a very experienced fighter and those kind of puzzles are easy for me to solve.”

On his training for an opponent deemed largely inferior by most pundits: “I trained eight weeks. I train for everybody like it’s the best fighter in the world.”

Adamek and Gunn also dedicated the fight to their friend Arturo Gatti who tragically passed away in Brazil while on vacation with his 23-year-old Brazilian wife and one-year-old son. Adamek said he met Gatti at the sweet sixteen party of manager Ziggy Rozalski’s daughter last year. And Gunn knew and was friendly with “Arthur” Gatti since their boxing days back in Canada. Gunn and Gatti also worked together flipping burgers at the White Mana hamburger joint in Jersey City in the early 1990’s.

Leave a Comment