[h4]Tomasz Adamek steps into land of the giants[/h4]
By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
Archive
AP Photo/Alik KepliczTomasz Adamek is proving size doesn't matter -- even at heavyweight.
Ten years ago, Michael Grant was the next big thing in boxing, a potential heavyweight champion who looked the part -- a sculpted 6-foot-7, 250 pounds -- spoke the part and had huge backing from HBO.
Then Lennox Lewis knocked Grant stiff in the second round of their April 2000 championship fight, and his career never recovered.
Grant lost his next fight when Jameel McCline upset him on a first-round knockout in which Grant severely injured his ankle. Grant rebounded to win his next seven fights, all against no-name opposition, before Dominick Guinn, himself hailed by many as a future heavyweight champion at the time, stopped Grant in the seventh round in June 2003.
From there, Grant (46-3, 34 KOs) slipped into obscurity. The Atlanta resident continued to fight, but there were some long layoffs and bouts in out of the way places, where he fashioned an eight-fight winning streak. But each came against more no-name opposition.
Now Grant is 38. He is far from the next big thing. But he still has a bit of a name and the size Tomasz Adamek is looking for.
[h4]The Big Challenge[/h4]
Television lineup for the Main Events-promoted Integrated Sports pay-per-view card Saturday night (9 ET, $29.95) from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.:
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Heavyweights: Tomasz Adamek (41-1, 27 KOs) vs. Michael Grant (46-3, 34 KOs), 12 rounds
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Junior middleweights: Joel "Love Child" Julio (35-4, 31 KOs) vs. Jamaal Davis (12-6, 6 KOs), 10 rounds
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Welterweights: Sadam Ali (8-0, 4 KOs) vs. Lenin Arroyo (20-12-1, 4 KOs), 8 rounds
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Junior welterweights: Jeremy Bryan (13-1, 6 KOs) vs. Daniel Mitchell (5-1-1, 2 KOs), 6 rounds
Adamek, the former cruiserweight champ and light heavyweight titlist, is now campaigning at heavyweight. He's 4-0 in the division with designs on a title shot against either Wladimir or Vitali Klitschko, both of whom are similar in size to Grant.
That's why Adamek (41-1, 27 KOs), coming off his impressive points win against Cristobal Arreola in April, will face Grant in a scheduled 12-rounder for Adamek's regional belt Saturday night (Integrated Sports, 9 ET, $29.95) at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., where Adamek has massive support from the large Polish community.
"My sparring partners are tall, too. I don't feel a problem," Adamek said. "With these guys, I feel good in the ring. For me, size is not a problem. Speed is power. Just like with Arreola and Andrew Golota, it's the same. I am quick, that is my advantage. Good left hand, and every time I train I am stronger. I'll win this fight."
While Adamek is attempting to polish his heavyweight credentials against such a big guy, Grant is looking at the fight as a way back to the big time even if he's surprised that he's still around.
"I didn't know I'd still be boxing 10 years later [after the Lewis fight]," Grant said. "I thought by this time I'd have some belts and been retired at an early age."
Despite the disappointments, Grant said he has no regrets.
"It was good for me to go through what I went through in this whole span," Grant said. "It brought experience, patience, things that were probably missing out in my arsenal. Now those years have accumulated and those things are now a part of me, patience and experience. I am happy, and happy I am still here in one piece.
"I'm blessed to have this opportunity to fight Adamek and I just see myself being victorious in the fight. It's courageous on Adamek's part to step up to this level and to fight heavyweights. But not to take [past Adamek heavyweight opponents] Jason Estrada or Arreola for granted, but I'm in a different class. I see how the billboard for the fight says, 'Big Challenge.' This is a huge challenge for him."
It's also a big challenge for Grant, who trained in Las Vegas under the tutelage of Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, and probably his final chance at a meaningful victory.
"Let's face it, he beat Cris Arreola and became a 'qualified' heavyweight," Grant said. "Now he has to go through me. But [if I win], it puts me in the driver's seat to step in there and step up for one of the Klitschkos."
During Grant's move up the ladder, he beat such name opponents as Andrew Golota, making him quit in the 10th round of a life-and-death battle in the fight before facing Lewis, Lou Savarese, Obed Sullivan and David Izon.
Main Events' Kathy Duva well remembers Grant's 1999 fight with Golota, Adamek's countryman and one of his heavyweight victims when he was beyond his prime.
"We respect Michael Grant. We don't think anybody is a stepping stone," Duva said. "I still have nightmares about the night that he fought Andrew Golota. We know that he's not a stepping stone. We know that Tomasz has to fight bigger guys, better guys, if he's going to be able to win the heavyweight title, which is what he wants to do. And our opinion here is that the guy who wins this fight is going to go on to do that.
"We believe that Tomasz is not going to get anywhere if he can't learn to beat the best in his division and he's going to have to get accustomed to very big fighters in order to do that."
Just as quickly as Grant's star rose, the fade began with his tougher-than-expected fight with Golota, followed by the Lewis blowout.
"Were there some regrets? Sure," Grant said. "But I am glad I went through those regrets."
He said he has never dwelled on the Lewis debacle.
"Ten years, man. Come on," he said. "That's long gone. I don't think about it anymore. But I still have an ultimate goal."
It is, of course, to be heavyweight champion. He knows time is of the essence.
"If we were talking about me being 28, I'd say a couple of more fights first," he said. "But you're talking to a 38-year-old. So we are stepping up to the plate now."
Perhaps for the final time.
[h4]Berto mandatory ordered[/h4]
Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesAndre Berto is looking long and hard for his next challenge at welterweight.
Promoter Lou DiBella and HBO are trying to put together a fall fight for welterweight titlist Andre Berto, which would take place in November.
Two names tossed around for Berto are junior welterweights Marcos Maidana (HBO's preference) and Andriy Kotelnik, whom promoter Don King is pushing hard for. However, Maidana rejected the bout Thursday, preferring to remain at 140 pounds. HBO has also approved Mike Jones, a true welterweight, for the fight, but there is some reticence about the match on the Berto side. The card probably will also feature featherweight Celestino Caballero. A tripleheader including junior middleweight titlist Sergei Dzinziruk is also possible.
One issue in finishing a Berto fight is that the WBC has ordered him to face mandatory challenger Selcuk Aydin, a fight Berto's camp and HBO aren't interested in, meaning his belt could be in jeopardy.
Aydin wants the fight, saying, "I have been waiting for more than a year to face Berto. I want to prove that I am one of the best welterweight fighters in the world today."
His co-promoter, Ahmet Öner, also wants to make the fight, be it in America or Aydin's native Turkey, where Berto has no intention of going.
"Berto is one of the biggest names in U.S. boxing today. He is one of the faces of HBO," said Öner, who signed Aydin to a co-promotional deal with Don King this month. "This is the chance Selcuk has been waiting and fighting for. I'm sure it will be a hell of a fight."
Mandatory or not, DiBella said the fight is unlikely to happen.
"HBO doesn't want Aydin, so it's not going to happen right now," he said. "There's no market for the fight and no American network is going to Turkey. Berto is not going to Turkey. Of course, we don't want Andre stripped, so we'll see what we can do make sure that doesn't happen. I'll call Ahmet. I have no problem with him. He's doing his job to stand up for his fighter, but my job is also to stand up for mine and to get him paid and televised. Aydin's last performance against Jo Jo Dan didn't help him."
Aydin scraped by to win a controversial split decision against Dan in Turkey in June.
DiBella's talks with HBO on an opponent for Berto center on Andriy Kotelnik, another King fighter, who performed well on HBO in a tight decision loss to junior welterweight titlist Devon Alexander on Aug. 7.
[h4]Lightweight action[/h4]
When Miguel Vazquez outpointed Ji Hoon Kim for a vacant lightweight belt last week, it gave Top Rank three 135-pound titleholders, although Juan Manuel Marquez is the division's lineal champion and also holds alphabet belts. Top Rank also promotes titlists Miguel Acosta and Humberto Soto, contenders Anthony Peterson, Brandon Rios and Urbano Antillon plus Marco Antonio Barrera, the all-time great who covets a lightweight title shot.
While not looking to put on a traditional tournament, Top Rank intends to mix and match its lightweights in a series of fights.
"There's a lot of parity among these lightweights," Top Rank's Carl Moretti said. "So why not try to make various fights and see what comes of it? I wouldn't describe it as a tournament, but it becomes one if you just start making the fights. We just have to find the right platforms for all of them.
"The process is already starting because Rios and Peterson are fighting (Sept. 11 on HBO) with Soto, also on the undercard. We have some building blocks that could lead to something big."
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter @danrafaelespn.
[h4]QUICK HITS[/h4]
Alexander
• Promoters Gary Shaw and Don King met with HBO on Thursday in an effort to finalize a junior welterweight unification showdown between Timothy Bradley Jr. and Devon Alexander. The deal is not done yet, but Shaw told ESPN.com that it's "getting there." If the fight is made, it would take place on Jan. 29, although the site remains up in the air. King would like to put it in St. Louis, where hometown man Alexander drew about 10,000 for his win against Andriy Kotelnik on Aug. 7. Shaw prefers a place like New Orleans or Washington. "We were up at HBO all day," Shaw said. "It was lovefest and we are really trying to get this done. We're going to try to put it to bed in the next couple of days. We're very close."
Jones
• Roy Jones (54-7, 40 KOs), the former pound-for-pound king and four-division champion plans to continue his career in the wake of his one-sided loss to Bernard Hopkins in April. Although Jones, 41, has lost three of his last five fights, including two in a row -- to Hopkins and a first-round knockout to Danny Green -- he is in discussions to face Danny Santiago (31-4-1, 19 KOs) in a cruiserweight fight in October in Pensacola, Fla., Jones' hometown. John Wirt, CEO of Jones' Square Ring promotional company, told ESPN.com the fight with Santiago was possible "but Roy is also considering some other things, some other options. We'll know more in a few days."
Rigondeaux
• While Top Rank works to get Antonio Margarito licensed somewhere in the United States (presumably Texas) so he can face Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 13, the company is also working on the HBO PPV undercard. Top Rank's Carl Moretti told ESPN.com that one of the fighters who will appear is junior featherweight Guillermo Rigondeaux, the two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist, assuming he beat Jose Beranza on Saturday on "Top Rank Live" (FS en Espanol). "I think after the fight in Mexico this weekend, Rigondeaux is ready to fight almost anybody from what I've seen and been told." Rigondeaux (5-0, 4 KOs), 29, had around 400 amateur fights, so his experience is far greater than his pro record indicates. Also likely for the televised undercard is Philadelphia welterweight prospect Mike Jones (22-0, 18 KOs), who is promoted by Russell Peltz, whom Top Rank is helping with Jones. Moretti and Peltz both said they were working on Jones' fight.
De Leon
• Daniel Ponce De Leon and Antonio Escalante will hook up in a featherweight eliminator Sept. 18 (HBO PPV) on the Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora undercard, Golden Boy's Eric Gomez told ESPN.com. Ponce De Leon was slated to face Miguel Roman (who lost to Escalante in a February fight of the year candidate), but Gomez pulled the plug on the fight because he said that although Roman agreed, he hadn't returned his contract. That prompted Gomez to step up efforts to match Ponce De Leon and Escalante, a fight Escalante manager Lester Bedford has wanted. "It's been agreed upon and now we're putting it on paper," Gomez said. "It's icing on the cake for this show." Escalante was also weighing an offer to fight Celestino Caballero on HBO in November on Andre Berto's undercard.
Bundrage
• Following Cornelius "K9" Bundrage's knockout of Cory Spinks to win a junior middleweight belt on Aug. 7, promoter Don King and Lou DiBella, who promotes Ronald Hearns, discussed an all-Detroit showdown. However, Emanuel Steward, Bundrage's trainer and the man best known for training the great Thomas Hearns, Ronald's father, put the kibosh on the match this week. He is adamantly against the fight and has no interest in going against Ronald Hearns, whom he has known since he was a baby. "I spoke to Cornelius Bundrage and Don King and under no conditions are we fighting Ronald Hearns. There is no interest," Steward told ESPN.com. "We have no interest, no plans and we are looking at something else. But he is definitely not in the plans. Under no conditions will we ever be fighting Ronald Hearns."
Solis
• Heavyweight contender Odlanier Solis headlines "Top Rank Live" on Oct. 9 against an opponent to be named, Top Rank's Moretti told ESPN.com. Solis thought he'd be facing former titlist Nikolai Valuev in a title eliminator with a shot at Vitali Klitschko at stake. However, the WBC reinstalled Ray Austin as its No. 1 contender after he was dropped for no apparent reason and threatened a lawsuit. So Austin is supposed to face Valuev, with Solis (16-0, 12 KOs), a 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist, waiting in the wings for the next eliminator. "We just want to get him in the ring," Moretti said. "He needs to fight. Enough of the politics. He's one of the best heavyweights in the world, we believe, and he can't just sit around."
Soto
• Lightweight titlist Humberto Soto's defense against Fidel Monterrosa, originally scheduled for Sept. 25 in Mexico, as a "Top Rank Live" main event, has been moved to Sept. 11 in Las Vegas, where it will take place on the undercard of the Yuriorkis Gamboa-Orlando Salido featherweight unification bout. While Soto-Monterrosa will still be televised in Mexico it won't be part of HBO's Gamboa-Salido broadcast. "We decided to change it and make Soto the international fight on the undercard because that's what [Fernando] Beltran, our partner, wanted to do," Moretti said.
Linares
• Fresh from a dominant decision against Rocky Juarez on the July 31 Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II undercard, former featherweight and junior lightweight titlist Jorge Linares (29-1, 18 KOs) will return Oct. 24, Golden Boy matchmaker Robert Diaz told ESPN.com. Linares, 24, who is from Venezuela but lives in Japan, will fight in Tokyo against Jesus Chavez at 133 pounds. The win against Juarez was Linares' second in a row since losing his 130-pound title via shocking first-round knockout to Juan Carlos Salgado in October 2009. Chavez (44-7, 30 KOs), a former junior lightweight and lightweight titlist, is 37 and has lost three in a row.
Salita
• Dmitriy Salita, who was blown out in 76 seconds by Amir Khan in a December mandatory junior welterweight title challenge in England, is returning. Salita, known to many for balancing his Orthodox Jewish faith with his boxing career, will fight in his hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y., Sept. 1 against Franklin Gonzalez (13-5, 9 KOs) of the Dominican Republic. The fight will be televised on The Jewish Channel, Salita said. "I named this card 'Redemption' because I am anxious to get back in the ring and score an impressive victory," Salita said. "This card is special because Oceana Theater is the first place that I fought in New York. It feels right, to come back home for a redeeming victory with all my friends and supporters."
Gamboa
• Yuriorkis Gamboa usually trains in Miami, but for his Sept. 11 (HBO) featherweight unification match with Orlando Salido, he'll train at the Fight Factory in Tampa. "It's a big fight and we wanted to get away and do it right," said Tony Gonzalez, Gamboa's manager and attorney. Also on the Gamboa-Salido card at The Palms in Las Vegas: the return of 2008 Russian Olympic middleweight Matvey Korobov, idle since April because of a nasal problem, and the second pro fight of light heavyweight Mike Lee, the Notre Dame graduate being trained by Ronnie Shields, who drew a big crowd for his pro debut in May.
• Junior lightweight titlist Rocky Martinez of Puerto Rico isn't taking any chance when it comes to the travel for his Sept. 4 defense in Scotland against mandatory challenger Ricky Burns (28-2, 7 KOs). Martinez, making his third defense, plans to arrive in Glasgow with plenty of time to spare in order to adjust to the climate and time change. "The wind and rain could be the biggest threat to me," Martinez said. "I'm not worried about Burns, but I am concerned about the temperature in Scotland. I hear it can be freezing even in August. I'll leave myself plenty of time to get ready because I don't want to make any mistakes." Martinez (24-0-1, 15 KOs) has traveled to the United Kingdom to fight before, knocking out Nicky Cook in the fourth round in England to win the title last year. "I would like to have fought in Puerto Rico, but I'm happy to come to Scotland to fight Ricky," Martinez said. "I have happy memories of Britain because it's where I beat Cook, and I will have more happy memories after the Burns fight."
• Although ESPN2's boxing season ends Aug. 28, ESPNDeportes will have a boxing special next month in honor of Mexico's bicentennial. Edin Dapudong (19-2, 10 KOs) faces Wilbur Uicab (28-5-1, 17 KOs) in a 12-round flyweight fight from Cancun, Mexico, that will air live on ESPN.com on Sept. 17. The card, which will air on tape the next day tape on ESPNDeportes, was to be headlined by a rematch between former lightweight titleholders Javier Jauregui and Julio Diaz, but Diaz, who signed a bout agreement according to promoter Artie Pelullo, withdrew without explanation the day before this week's press conference. Plans are in the works to add another title bout to the card.
Klitschko
• Promoter Lou DiBella acquired the replay rights to Vitali Klitschko's May heavyweight title defense in against Albert Sosnowski. The fight, which aired on pay-per-view, will be replayed beginning Sunday (8 p.m., SportsNet New York), as well as on Comcast Sports affiliates nationwide, on DiBella's "Broadway Boxing" series. DiBella has been acquiring American rights for other foreign bouts, too, including fights involving Erik Morales and David Tua.
[h4]QUOTABLE[/h4]
Pascal
"I am the king in town. I'm the one who faced and beat one of the best boxers on the planet. I beat him, and a king doesn't chase other kings." -- light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal, after his victory against Chad Dawson, when asked about facing super middleweight titlist Lucian Bute in an all-Montreal showdown
[h4]QUOTABLE[/h4]
Bute
"I never declared myself as such. That's Pascal's style not mine. I respect his style and his boxing ability, too. One day we will be in the ring, and then we'll see who's the best." -- Bute, on eventually facing Pascal in what would be the biggest fight in Canadian history, when asked who is the king of Montreal
