Amazing collapse. Truly. Kownacki's fight with Arreola seems to be the one that did him in. Kownacki won, but Arreola, who could always punch, hit Kownacki in the head close to 300 times. None of them were taps. Adam hasn't won a fight since and has no ability to take a punch anymore. Won the battle but lost the war, as they say. One of those beatings you never recover from.
Yes and no. It was OK for him to take some time off and to try again. It was clear that he wasn´t going to be able to compete anywhere close to world level, but he could still have a fun career. He managed to beat: Artur Szpilka, Iago Kiladze, Charles Martin, Gerald Washington and Chris Arreola. Those are decent wins and if he could keep it up, he could have continued his career just fine. Demirezen should have raised some serious questions. But Joe Cusumano was the one who should have retired Kownacki. It was as evident as it could be that he was done. Sure, maybe he could beat some club fighter and he likely would, but at this point it´s not worth it. Anyone with a pulse will likely put a beating on him now.
Sooner or later it must end like that. Kownacki always was lazy, unprofesional, and he was a dime a dozen when it came to investing in himself. I never forget when in some interview when he was near top 15 hw he said he train alone because his trainer live too far away from him and cant come to him.... I was shocked. But that's all Kownacki. He got great profesional camp in Poland when he got fight with Szpilka and he knew how it works but still he choose to do all cheap and easy way. Sad. But end of the day he still fot better career than we all probably expect. His poor defence cost him too much. And he is good example why boxers should not fight with all and how easy is to make stupid mistake when You choose next opponent. They make big mistake giving him Helenius. They forget that Robert with all his limitation was known for having heavy hands. Also big mistake was not taking Joshua fight. He will earn much more money then. There is possibility that another example of destroyed good carrer in hw after same mistake will be Joe Joyce who make mistake taking 2 fights with Zhang being even higher than him. But always big respect to Adam for Szpilka fight. Even if now even his fans understand he is not soo humble person himself.
It's more than chin being cracked. It's self doubt most likely. Most cases of chins being cracked are mental. You feel your invulnerability is gone.
Beating Chris Areolla is the kiss of death. You beat him and your boxing career goes to crap. Steverne, Wilder, Ruiz, Kownacki......................even Vitali wasn't the same.
Sugar Rob (now known as Roid Rob) took his soul. Don't be surprised if Kash Ali knocks out Joe Joyce whose dome is also a punch magnet and suffered double-losses and looked very hesistant in the rematch similar to Kownacki.
That fight was nothing but heavy leather landing. It definitely took away Kownacki's career. 300 punches then back to back stoppages against Helenius
hundreds of Arreola punches raining down on him then taking Helenius' shots over the course of 3 fights pretty much did it. Helenius was always a pretty stiff hitter though and Kownacki never saw a punch he could avoid...............taxing style
I said it before, that's who Wilder should've fought instead of Parker. Could've blasted him out and got the Joshua figt rolling.
Beck lost a SD to Austin directly after that, but yeah not too long before he was totally useless and just showing up to get payed and flop around like a fish.
I think it was his approach in general. Took it's toll. He ate some big shots against Martin and Kiladze as well. I told a few people to bet against Kownacki every time he fights because eventually those 10/1 sort of odds would strike gold for them. Truth be told I think Kownacki actually overachieved in his career considering how limited he was.
Yeah, he took a beating then as well, was actually at that fight. He behaved so odd when he got caught flush. His body didn't register punches well.........