By Ian S Palmer
There’s a good heavyweight clash on tap this October Saturday, October 6th as undefeated Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller of the U.S. will be taking on Polish Heavyweight king Tomasz Adamek at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The 12-round bout can be seen in North America on DAZN and on Sky Sports in the UK. Miller was last in the ring in April when he pounded out a 12-round unanimous decision over Johann Duhaupas. Adamek was also in action in April when he stopped Joey Abell in the seventh round.
The 30-year-old Miller of Brooklyn, New York will enter the ring with near-perfect record of 21-0-1 along with 18 Kos. He’s a decent-sized heavyweight at 6-feet-4-inches tall with a reach of 78 inches, but has entered the ring at close to 300 lbs in the past. He’s not the typical muscle-bound heavyweight, but his body shape has worked for him so far so he’s not expected to make any drastic changes in the near future. He’s also a former kickboxer who’s now a legitimate top-10 contender as a heavyweight. Miller certainly has better-than-average power as his knockout ratio currently stands at 82 per cent.
He’s on a roll, but his nine-fight knockout streak was ended when Duhaupas recently took him the distance. Miller turned pro in 2009 and has 83 rounds under his belt since. He hasn’t really fought any top-ranked foes though as his wins have been against boxers such as Duhaupas, Akhror Muralimov, Donovan Dennis, Gerald Washington, Fred Kassi and Mariusz Wach. The lone blemish on his record is a four-round draw against Joey Dawelko in 2013. Miller isn’t interested in letting the judges decide his contests as he’d prefer to let his power punches do it. It’s worked so far and his chin seems to be pretty good.
Adamek is a stellar boxer, but he’s now 41 years old. The former WBC Light Heavyweight and IBF Cruiserweight Champion enters the contest with a record of 53-5 along with 31 Ko’s. He’s lost three of his last seven outings dating back to 2014. The defeats came to Eric Molina, Vyacheslav Glazkov and Arthur Szpilka, with Molina being the only one to stop him. Adamek’s been a very consistent and underrated boxer throughout his fine career and has been a credit to the sport. However, he’s always flown under the radar in the U.S. even though he’s been fighting out of New Jersey for a while.
Adamek is just shy of 6-feet-2-inches tall and has a 75-inch reach, so he’ll be giving up two inches in height and three inches in reach to Miller. He’s been stopped just one other time in his pro career and that was against Vitali Klitschko in the 10th round of a world heavyweight title fight back in 2011. His other career defeat coming at the hands of Chad Dawson by unanimous decision in 2007. Adamek may have been halted twice, but he still owns a pretty solid chin and both stoppages came after he had moved up to heavyweight.
Adamek has beaten some fine boxers over the years since turning pro in 1999, such as Paul Briggs, Steve Cunningham (twice), Eddie Chambers, Michael Grant, Vinny Maddalone, Nagy Aguilera, Chris Arreola, Andrew Golota, Jason Estrada, Bobby Gunn, Johnathon Banks, O’Neil Bell, Thomas Ulrich, and Travis Walker. He has plenty of experience against good opposition and has 402 rounds under his belt. Adamek has decent power, but isn’t known as a knockout artist with his current KO ratio standing at 53 per cent.
Prediction…
Adamek’s definitely on the downside of his career now but still appears to have enough left in the tank to be competitive. He’s at his best when he presses the action and gets off first. He’s got enough power to do some damage and has a decent chin, but isn’t exactly the hardest guy to hit. Adamek’s a better boxer than Duhaupas, and he took Miller the distance earlier in the year, so if he uses his boxing skills he could go 12. On the other hand, Miller’s a big guy with a heavy punch and is quite energetic. There’s a good chance he’ll finish Adamek off if he hurts him and that may be the most logical outcome here.
