The truth is usually less flattering :verysad First Loss to Chad Dawson ended Adamek prime Chad Dawson ruined Adamek, otherwise he would have retired as ATG light heavyweight, instead of sticking for revenge or other fights he was dispatched elsewhere for a cashout
Really? So his loss to Dawson makes his subsequent victories over the likes of Bell, Cunningham, Banks and Arreola irrelevant? For me, it only makes a stronger case for him as a great fighter. Seeing how he easily gained solid weight, clearly LHW wasn't his optimal weight category.
anyone with a WBC, WBO, WBA title would be fights worth making....just an excuse to move up and be mediocre
What is mediocre about his HW run? He hung around the top 5 for 4 years, beat a few contenders and lost a title fight to a Klitschko. That's about as much as anyone else has done in the division not named Klitschko in the past 8 or 9 years now. He gave it a shot, can't blame him for that.
WTF would you do if you just fought a FOTY candidate on premium cable and you couldn't even secure a rematch because Showtime kept insisting no one is interested in watching it. What he did was not an excuse, he did what many top CWs did for decades, after realizing that there is no money for them in that division in NA. Coming from LHW, what Adamek accomplished is pretty amazing. There are not many people who have made that jump in weight and still remained competitive. Aside from the $$$, Adamek legitimately believed he could win Poland's first HW belt and gave it a good run.
Huck doesnt seem to mind the cruiserweight money, hes been a champion for almost 5 years..... lets see, you can become possibly a legend at cruiserweight by unifying the titles and being dominant (he made 2 defenses of an IBF title) or move up to heavyweight and be "competitive". :-(
thanks, you just defined the word "mediocre". michael grant had the same type of heavyweight run, beat a few contenders and fought for the heavyweight title. is he more than a mediocre heavyweight?
Exactly. The sour grapes regarding Adamek's HW run is just absurd. Anything short of beating a Klitschko for a World Title is apparently a massive failure he should hang his head in shame over. In terms of CWs who moved to HW, he falls well short of Holyfield and Toney but in truth did better than Haye, Qwai, Huck, Czyz, Jirov, Hide..etc.
Grant wasn't mediocre Mediocre is the guys Grant and Adamek beat like Arreola, Izon, Savarese, Walker, and even Golota to an extent. And in terms of Grant, Adamek at least didn't get blown out by McCline in a single round to end his run as a top contender, he went out with a game effort against a younger fighter. Adamek should probably be ranked a nudge above "Big". And as I pointed out, Adamek had more success at HW than a good number of other cruisers who moved up.
I clearly stated North America several times. Its been demonstrated for decades that CW has a very small market in NA even when there are periods of time with good fighters and good competitive fights to be made. At CW, Adamek made some money mostly because of sellouts in Prudential Center. Huck's every fight is shown on premium German TV and he has their inexplicable adulation, even though he's a poor man's Adamek. We all know how fickle German boxing fans are about their fighters.
He was 31-0 in 175 lbs After the Dawson loss, his handlers started doubting Adamek and strictly picked stylistic cherry picks on the way to Vitali In reality Adamek was the perfect light heavyweight, Hopkins lost and came back. Adamek had more winnable legacy/money fights in 175 tHink Calzaghe to 175 now atsch Bloodworth can't make Adamek reach long enough for Heavyweight :yep
Actually Huck did take a shot at HW and dropped a (bs) decision vs. Povetkin. He's also got a killer german/tv deal allowing him to stay at cw.