Eye on the Heavyweight division
Saturday, August 21, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, Tomasz Adamek (42-1-0, 27 KO’s) won a hard fought twelve round unanimous decision victory over Michael Grant to retain his IBF International belt and capture the vacant NABO title.
Once again, the six foot one and a half inch tall Adamek proved he could hang with a taller and heavier foe. Grant stands six foot seven inches.
Though Adamek was cautious at first, he soon started poking with the hard jabs and single shots, bobbing and weaving his way in and out of punching range.
All the while Grant stood there with his right hand cocked but unable to land anything solid. In the closing seconds of that first round, Grant did land a telling blow on the inside, which appeared to affect Adamek who grabbed Grant as the bell sounded. Adamek nearly went through the ropes.
In rounds two through four, Adamek used his shorter height to duck under Grant’s jabs and use combinations on the inside. Grant looked out of sorts as he rarely let go of the right hand and when he did, it sailed over the head of Adamek. In the closing seconds of the sixth round, Grant connected with a big right which opened a cut over Adamek’s left eye. Grant bled from his mouth from the sixth on and the few shots that did land were doing their damage as Adamek’s face started to puff up.
Adamek appeared to tire in the ninth as Grant landed more solid right hands. Adamek returned fire, but wasn’t doing the same damage that he had earlier.
In the 10th round, Adamek circled away from his opponent while Grant kept trying to land that powerful right. Both boxers traded heavy blows in the middle of the 11th, until Adamek eventually backed away.
As the 12th and final round began, the crowd was whooped into a frenzy. Adamek, cut above both eyes, appeared exhausted. On the other side of the ring, Grant was ready to finish him off. Midway into the round, Grant connected with his biggest punch of the fight, a right hand to the side of Adamek’s face. After looking stunned, Grant went after him but Adamek held on. Once out of the clinch, Grant seemed to let Adamek rest for awhile and that’s when Adamek clinched again. Even though Grant continued to swing away, Adamek was able to duck under and avoid the harder blows.
All three judges saw the bout the same way, in favor of Adamek by scores of 117-111, 118-110 and 118-111.
Tuesday evening at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fl. Guru Singh was stopped by Timur Ibragimov in the 10th round. The former Olympians, Ibragimov, 225 ½ pounds of Hallandale, Florida and Guru Singh, 221 pounds of Atlantic City, NJ. squared off in a scheduled 10 rounder for the vacant WBO Intercontinental heavyweight title.
Ibragimov, who boxed in the 1996 Olympics for his native Uzbekistan, was the busier fighter throughout and landed the much harder shots. Singh did little except for the occasional quick jab or one-two combination. The first half of the fight was marred by frequent holding by both fighters.
At the end of the ninth round, a right hand by Ibragimov drove Singh into the ropes and three more right hands put the 2000 Indian Olympian on the canvass. After a short right uppercut stunned Singh in the tenth, Ibragimov followed with a right to the jaw that dropped Singh. After he got up, Ibragimov moved quickly to finish him off.
Ibragimov moved to 29-2-1 with 16 K’s, while Singh loses for the first time and slipped to 20-1-0, with 11 KO’s.
Is it possible that 6'7" Tyson Fury could someday defeat one or both of the Klitschko brothers?
USA boxing fans will finally get their chance to see unbeaten 6’7 heavyweight Tyson Fury (11-0, 9 KO’s) on September 10 as ShoBox: The New Generation will travel to York Hall in London, England. Fury’s opponent is yet to be announced.
