By Ian S Palmer
American heavyweight Joey Abell of will be travelling to Poland this Saturday, April 21st to take on veteran hometown hero Tomasz Adamek in a 10-round bout for the Republic of Poland International Heavyweight Title. Adamek last fought in November when he beat Fred Kassi by a 10-round unanimous decision. Abell’s last outing took place in Poland as well where he stopped Krzysztof Zimnoch in the third round. The bout can be seen on pay-per-view over in Poland.
Adamek is now 41 years old and says he’ll retire if Abell beats him, but will have one more fight if he’s victorious. The former WBC Light Heavyweight and IBF Cruiserweight Champion enters the contest with a record of 52-5 with 30 Kos. He’s lost three of his last six outings dating back to 2014 to Eric Molina, Vyacheslav Glazkov and Arthur Szpilka, with Molina being the only one to stop him. Adamek’s generally 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 fought out of New Jersey for a while and never quite reached the elite or star status anywhere other than his homeland. Adamek is just shy of 6-feet-2-inches tall and has a 75-inch reach. He’s been stopped just one other time in his pro career and that was against Vitali Klitschko in the 10th round back in 2011 with his other career defeat coming at the hands of Chad Dawson by unanimous decision in 2007.
On the bright side, Adamek has beaten some fine boxers over the years since turning pro in 1999, such as Paul Briggs, Steve Cunningham, 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 396 pro rounds under his belt.
Adamek has good power, but isn’t known as a knockout artist with his current Ko ratio standing at 53 per cent. He’s definitely on the downside of his career now but still appears to have enough left in the tank to be competitive against boxers such as Abell. Adamek is at his best when he presses the action and gets off first. He’s got enough power to do some damage to his opponents and has a decent chin, but isn’t exactly the hardest guy to hit.
As for Abell, the southpaw from Champlin, Minnesota is 36 years old and boasts a record of 34-9 with 32 of his wins coming by Ko. He’s big and can punch as he’s 6-feet-4-inches tall with a 76-inch reach and has a current knockout ratio of 71 per cent. He’s a couple of inches taller than Adamek and has just a one-inch reach advantage. But with 32 Kos in his 32 victories it’s obvious Abell has some power in his fists.
But while that may be true, the problem with the American journeyman is that he’s not the greatest at taking a punch as he’s been stopped in seven of his nine losses. He’s been KO’d by Oscar Rivas, Tyson Fury, Kubrat Pulev, Fres Oquendo, Chris Arreola, Andrew Greeley and Aaron Lyons. He’s also lost a decision to Alfred Cole and was disqualified against Jason Nicholson.. Abell has 118 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2005 and has faced some decent opposition.
Prediction…
Abell has never beaten a Grade A opponent as he’s always fallen short when facing them, generally by being stopped. There’s no doubt Adamek’s a far better boxer, but at the age of 41 he’s definitely past his prime. He shouldn’t have a problem outboxing Abell, but wants to stay away from going toe-to-toe with the big American unless he has him hurt. Abell really has nothing to lose and may go on the attack right from the get-go. After that it’s anybody’s guess as to what’s going to happen, but as long as his chin holds out look for Adamek to win another one.
