Kearny’s Tomasz Adamek (l.) met with opponent Dominick Guinn at last Friday’s weigh-in. A day later, Adamek dominated Guinn in a 10-round decision, his first fight in over seven months.
By Jim Hague
Observer Sports Writer
It had been seven long months since Tomasz Adamek climbed into the ring for a bout, but last Saturday night, Adamek showed no signs of rust whatsoever, as he totally dominated Dominick Guinn in a 10-round decision in a heavyweight bout at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.
The 36-year-old Kearny resident fought for the first time in 2013, after going 4-0 in 2012. Some of those wins were questionable in the eyes of the boxing purists, so Adamek had a lot to prove Saturday night as part of the NBC Sports Network’s Fight Night series.
Adamek, who also endured an arrest for DUI earlier this year in Lake Placid, showed that he was a refreshed and invigorated boxer, even if Guinn was a last-minute replacement for scheduled opponent Tony Grano.
It was the best outing by Adamek since he lost to Vitaly Klitschko for the heavyweight championship of the world in September of 2011.
After a slow start, Adamek (now 49-2 with 28 knockouts), got going in the second round, much to the delight of the “Polish Nation” that traveled to the Connecticut casino to see their national hero in action.
With the crowd chanting “Adamek, Adamek,” and “Polska, Polska,” the Polish native, known as “a mountain boy,” strategically went to work on the slower and methodical Guinn (now 34-10-1 with 23 knockouts).
It was clearly a one-sided decision, with Adamek winning, 98-92 on one judge’s card and 99-91 on the other two cards.
After winning the first round, Guinn was in trouble and managed to hang on to get a decision.
Adamek was so much quicker than he showed in recent bouts, thanks to the efforts of trainer Roger Bloodworth, who spent 10 weeks getting Adamek ready for the fight.
Again, since Guinn took the fight with very little notice, he appeared to struggle physically after the fourth round and Adamek took advantage of that, scoring at will in the middle rounds.
The win was just another step in Adamek’s ultimate goal.
“I just want one more title shot,” Adamek said.
“That’s my goal. If I can win a couple more fights, that’s what I want.”
Bloodworth admitted that Adamek needed the seven-month respite.
“He had four tough fights last year,” Bloodworth said. “We really didn’t take any breaks. He would come to my house and train, then I would go to his house and train. We would do it for weeks at a time without much of a break. He was in camp for about 50 weeks last year. He was burned out. He has tremendous heart so he was able to push through it, but he needed the time off. I didn’t think he was at the end of his career. I just think he was getting a little stale. You can’t do this stuff every day. When you work too hard in the gym, you leave it all in the gym.
Added Bloodworth, “He seems quicker with his jab. It’s easy for him to get two or three jabs off. You can tell he’s sharp.”
“I’m healthy and fresh,” Adamek said. “I was too busy last year. It was time for a comeback. I am ready for tough fights.”
Adamek’s next foe could very well be someone within his own promotional team’s ranks.
Main Events is discussing the possibility of pairing their top two heavyweights, meaning Adamek against promising undefeated heavyweight Bryant Jennings on HBO sometime in November.
All parties seem interested in the fight.
BoxingScene.com reported after Adamek’s win Saturday that Main Events was “just talking” to both Adamek and Jennings about a possible fight. Jennings is 17-0 with nine knockouts.
The winner of the Adamek- Jennings fight could be in line to fight Wladimir Klitschko for the heavyweight title sometime in 2014.
It is a gamble for Main Events and president Kathy Duva to put both of her prized heavyweights in the ring against each other, but when HBO talks, people tend to listen.
It’s just a shame that all the time, effort and money NBC Sports Network has put into the Fight Night series that they would get shortchanged in a possible Adamek-Jennings showdown.
Stay tuned.
One thing is for sure. Adamek is back – and he proved it in a huge way Saturday.
