Tomáš "Jumbo" Adámek (*the Czech light heavyweight journeyman, not the Polish ex-LHW champ)

You know what? I give this motherfucker some major props.

Literally for his entire career, it has been a running joke that he is "the other Adamek", easily confused due to phonetically identical first & last names (the only minor spelling difference is that "Goral" Adamek, the vastly more known & celebrated Pole, spells Tomasz with a z). Both are from Central Europe. Both competed in their primes in the same division, and they are roughly the same exact size. Even stylistically they are cut from more or less the same cloth: both workmanlike orthodox no-frills boxer-brawlers who favor clockwise lateral movement at medium-close range throwing predominantly straight punches, neither of them blessed with abundant speed nor one punch kayo power but making the most of what they have by putting their all into every melee, despite both having serviceable yet hardly unassailable defense and solid but imperfect and (especially among the sport's upper tiers) eminently destructible chins but never shying from a scuffle, with both sporting a "let's do this!" attitude when the going roughens. Tomasz with a Z was already champ at 175lbs, in possession of the storied green belt, when 26 year old without-a-Z made his pro debut in 2006. So the poor Bohemian (hailing from Hradec Králové) was always doomed to live in Goral's lengthy shadow.

Nevertheless, he persisted.

Despite the late start in the pro game (without any significant amateur background to build on - and perhaps none, period, as I can find no trace of mention of him in the unpaid ranks) ...and despite having early on been relegated to a journeyman role, about three years in, after being outclassed and mercilessly battered into submission and ultimately KTFO with a body shot by Vyacheslav Uzelkov in a decisive crossroads battle of then-young prospects ...and despite having since lost more often than not, with a 13-14-1 mark since the Uzelkov loss ...he still has kept active with a blistering pace of, for most of a decade, averaging over three fights a year. He still willingly crisscrosses the continent, doing yeoman work as road warrior, serving as, to borrow a polite euphemism from pro wrestling, "enrichment talent" for European prospects, never turning down a single assignment while always giving an honest effort and gunning for victory despite being expected (and having the deck stacked to ensure that he will) lose.

Along the way Jumbo has even managed to spring the occasional upset. He claimed the WBF International title from Mohamed Merah (no relation to a fellow Algerian import by the same name who perpetrated the mass shootings at Montauban & Toulouse in 2012), in Merah's own hometown of Douai, France in 2015...and in February of last year he gutted out a unanimous decision over Norwegian world title contender Tim-Robin Lihaug in Oslo. Then a few months ago, in what had to have been his proudest moment (despite coming versus an opponent with a modest 6-6-1 record), he claimed his country's vacant national light heavyweight championship with a dominant UD against Ondřej Budera. No doubt he benefited from being a proverbial "big fish in a small pond", with the the domestic pool of talent being admittedly shallow enough to pave the way, but nonetheless. Good for him. That has to feel something like vindication for all his years of toil, and having almost single-handedly carried the international recognition torch for boxers from the Czech Republic since the retirement of Lukáš Konečný.

Coming up on Saturday is an opportunity to make 2018 a true banner year, doubling up on titles for the first time ever, as he (for some reason) has been deemed eligible to challenge for the Austrian national LHW championship, against unbeaten Mansur Elsaev (who is Russian, but at least resides presently in Vienna). Hey, I'm not questioning the logistics - just rooting like hell for Jumbo to spring one more upset and finally deflower an undefeated favorite...of which Elsaev will be his twelfth faced, comprising more than a quarter of his career opposition!

VÁLKA (WAR) JUMBO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here is Adámek vs. Budera:

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Here is Elsaev vs. Ferenc Törek, from last year:

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Mansur "Golden Boy" Elsaev - who made headlines in Russian news as part of a gang of Chechen street thugs with a passion for illegal drag racing, all of whom participate in various combat sports (primarily MMA) - is 8-0 (6) but from the limited footage I've seen I don't think he possesses the kind of pop necessary to put away (or even discourage from pressing in close) the always tough & determined Adámek. He seems to be all sizzle but relatively little steak, with a lot of grandiose posturing and proclamations of his destined greatness on his social media accounts, but having read a rough translation of a German article describing in detail his second pro fight, going life & death with a now 2-6-2 fighter who then was 36 years old - I think our boy has a realistic chance to outbox the swaggering hooligan.

 

I'm honestly more invested emotionally in this fight than in the "big one" Saturday night.

 

...wrong Adamek.

 

It all boils down to everybody these days having this ridiculous phobia of defeat, as though it stigmatized athletes to such a degree as to justify making of them pariahs unworthy of respect. It amounts to no less stupid a mass foible than any medieval superstition, like killing a cat for crossing your path (and otherwise minding its own little feline business) and therefore blighting your "luck".

As previously noted, of his sixteen defeats and two draws, eleven of those came against unbeaten opponents in fights in which he was the visiting B-side and underdog. With very few exceptions his blemishes have all come at the hands of prospects with their zeroes intact, or else top shelf European-level contenders like Haxhi "Robin" Krasniqi and Nadjib Mohammedi.

 

Plus, just watch his fights. How do you not root for a guy that battles his guts out and punches as hard as he can in exchanges despite being kind of a feather-fist (by elite standards) and takes all comers as he does, making every concession there is and still never laying down for anybody? Plus you have to sympathize with him for having doubtless had to put up with listening to dumb "oh, so not the GOOD Tomasz Adamek" jokes for a dozen years.

 

I also, full disclosure, have something of a soft spot for the Czech Republic (having vacationed in Praha and the surrounding countryside twice with my son's mother; it stands as my favorite city in the world and my #1 pick of where to retire at the end of my days) and was a huge Konečný supporter, both for that reason and because I objectively really dug his style.

 

It was all I could do not to beg my then-gf fiancée to secure the services of a Slovak lady of the night for a Yuletide present ménage à trois.

It was an unrealistic temptation but lingered just beneath the surface pretty much every waking hour...all the more so as soon as we set foot outside the hotel (or hell, even passing the front desk girls in the lobby...FFS...)

 

...as in business reasons personal to you, or personal reasons that are nobody else's business?