By Ian S. Palmer
Travis Walker vs Tomasz Adamek Preview Sept. 8th
Polish heavyweight Tomasz Adamek will be taking on Travis Walker of Houston, Texas at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey this Saturday afternoon Sept. 8th as he hopes to work his way up to another shot at a heavyweight title. Adamek is a former light-heavyweight and cruiserweight titleholder, but his best days could be behind him as he’s 35 years old now.
Photo courtesy of Damien Acevedo
There will still be a title on the line though as Adamek is the current IBF North American Heavyweight Champion. He’s got an impressive 46-2, record with 28 KOs and is one of the most underrated boxers in the world. The power-punching Walker will enter the ring with a 39-7-1 record with 31 KOs. However, even if Adamek does get a title shot it means he’ll have to take on either Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko. He’s already faced Vitali for the WBC crown, but just didn’t have the size, strength, and power to deal with the champ and he was stopped in the 10th round last September.
Adamek is currently ranked number nine by the WBC and fourth by the IBF and his only other loss was a unanimous decision to WBC light-heavyweight champion Chad Dawson. Adamek likes to stay as active as possible and has faced some top-class fighters as well as a number of journeymen since turning pro back in 1993. Some of his most well-known opponents include Klitschko, Dawson, Thomas Ulrich, Paul Briggs, O’Neil Bell, Steve Cunningham, Jonathon Banks, Andrew Golota, Chris Arreola, Michael Grant, and Eddie Chambers. His last bout was a unanimous decision over Chambers in June.
Adamek’s just over 6-foot-1 in height with a 75 inch reach. The 33-year-old Walker is three inches taller and has an 82 inch reach, so he’s got quite an advantage in both those areas. He turned pro back in 2004 and has faced some decent fighters along the way such as Arreola, Banks, Ruslan Chagaev, Alonzo Butler, and Kali Meehan. Walker’s got a lot of power, but his chin is on the weak side as he’s been stopped five times.
Adamek has a pretty good chin and may need it in this fight if the 33-year-old Walker connects cleanly on him. If Walker does happen to hurt Adamek he’ll have to stay on top of him and follow it up as the Polish fighter has pretty good recovery powers and plenty of experience. Adamek will have to get in and out and land shots to Walker and make sure he’s not in range for any counter shots. If he can do that in every round he’ll be able to rack up enough points for a decision.
There’s no doubt that Adamek’s more or less willing to take on anybody, but he needs to be very careful against a hard hitter like Walker. Adamek could get staggered a couple of times in this fight, but if he stays on his feet he should be able to box his way to a decision.
Edison Miranda vs Tony Bellew Preview Sept. 8th
Power-punching Edison Miranda of Colombia will travel across the Atlantic to take on Tony Bellew of Britain in a 10-round light heavyweight bout at London, England’s Alexandra Palace. Miranda is basically a knockout artist with a record of 35-7, with 30 KO’s while Bellew of Liverpool will enter the ring with a 17-1 mark with 11 KO’s.
The 31-year-old Miranda might need to knock his 29-nine-year-old opponent out as it could be hard getting a decision in Bellew’s backyard, but that’s his specialty anyway. He doesn’t really go into fights planning on winning a decision. Bellew won’t want to go to-to-toe with Miranda so look for him to keep a distance and out of harm’s way at all times. If he decides to slug it out this fight will probably be over pretty quickly with Miranda having his hand held up in victory.
Bellew doesn’t have the greatest of chins and he’s never faced anybody as powerful as Miranda since he turned pro in 2007. He’s got decent size at just over 6-feet-2, but has been down a couple of times in his career already. Most North American fans won’t recognize any of his opponents other than Nathan Cleverly, who he lost to last October by a 12-round majority decision. He performed well against Cleverly, and then beat Danny McIntosh in his last bout this April.
Miranda never really was a world-class fighter even though he has world-class power. He’s not considered a serious contender for a world title anymore and at 5-feet-10 he’s not that big for a light heavyweight. He turned pro in 2001 and reeled off 21 straight knockouts to start his career. Three of them came in the second round, one was in the third and one took place in the fifth round. The other 16 were first-round KOs.
He didn’t go the distance until four years after turning pro. He beat a couple of decent fighters in Jose Varela and Howard Eastman before losing a decision to Arthur Abraham in 2006. He’s also lost to Kelly Pavlik by seventh-round KO and Abraham stopped him in the fourth in a rematch. Other fighters to beat him include Andre Ward and Lucian Bute. Most of the boxers he’s lost to have been world champions in their careers.
Miranda isn’t a bad boxer, but if he can’t find his opponent he’s often in trouble because he depends on knockouts. His chin is questionable, but he still prefers to slug it out. His last bout was in February when he lost a 10-round unanimous decision to Isaac Chilemba. If this fight took place a few years ago it would probably end up being a mismatch. However, at this period in time Bellew stands more of a chance. But having said that, look for Miranda to catch him at sometime in this fight and knock him out.
