All The Big Talk Yet What Do We Get... Adamek-Godfrey!!!!

By Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro
2nd May 2009

Be warned that the following article is not for the faint hearted. I do not pull any punches as I am mightily disgusted that yet again Tomasz Adamek’s advisers, Main Events and Ziggy Promotions, have gone out of their way to deprive boxing fans the much deserved rematch, of the December 11th ‘08 classic, with Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham. Even worse they tried to take our focus off Adamek -Cunningham II by making out that Adamek would actually face a decent opponent, yet as in February ‘09 it seems that they are going to give us yet another second rate show to protect their investment.

Over the past month or so there has been so much speculation going on about who will be facing Tomasz ‘Goral’ Adamek at the Prudential Center on the 10th July. Every “well past sell by date” Light Heavyweight and their dog has been linked to the fight. Remember this is for the IBF Cruiserweight belt, yet no decent Cruiserweight has ever been linked to the fight, let alone the one genuine opponent that should have been offered the date.

Before I get onto the bulls**t that has been put out by Main Events/Ziggy Promotions spin doctors over the past month or so, here is a little history lesson for anyone who had been on Mars, castaway on a deserted island or in a coma since early December last year.

On Thursday, December 11th 2008 a magnificent boxing match took place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, between the then reigning IBF Cruiserweight champion, Steve 'USS' Cunningham, from Philadelphia, PA. and former WBO Light Heavyweight champion, Tomasz 'Goral' Adamek, originally from Poland but now residing in Jersey City, NJ.,

From the opening bell Cunningham out punched Adamek and looked set to cruise his way through the fight. In the second round, just as Cunningham seemed to be going for an early finish, Adamek threw a countering hook catching Cunningham with his forearm and sending the champion off balance and down to the canvas. Cunningham jumped up in an instant.

Determined to win back the lost points, Cunningham fought even harder and in the fourth had Adamek reeling and rocking when ‘Goral’, who had barely thrown a punch for almost the whole round, caught the tiring ‘USS’ Cunningham and put him on the deck once more. Again Cunningham leapt to his feet after barely touching the canvas.

With two knockdowns against him Cunningham seemed determined to go for a knockout and looked well on his way to getting it when in the eighth the very same thing happened again. Just as Cunningham looked to finish his challenger off after a frantic exchange, Adamek caught Cunningham who again went down, but was up again before the referee could even start the count.

The final rounds were superb Cunningham fought like a demon to try and make up the lost points and Adamek fought hard for survival. At the end of this magnificent fight most of the press corps felt the champion had done enough for the him to be declared victorious or, at least, earn a draw. However the judges saw it differently and gave the nod to Adamek by split decision.

Being a mandatory defense there wasn’t a rematch clause. During the post-fight press conference the assembled media continually called for a rematch. However Adamek and his management politely refused to entertain the notion and have continued to do so to date.

Not happy with this response the media and fans, in unison, got the bit between their teeth and spoke their collective minds. Message boards and forums around the world were buzzing with comments praising the fight. Videos of the fight were posted on YouTube and combined received exceptional viewing figures in excess of 250,000 on the first day. Just 7 days later the two most watched videos were listed as having over 235,000 and 160,000 views, with two others showing 100,000+ viewing figures before being taken down for copyright infringement.

Virtually every media report and subsequent articles on the bout claimed it to be a candidate for 'Fight Of The Year' or called for a rematch, and in many cases both.

Months after the fight took place the media were still referring to the fight and calling for a rematch. You don’t have to take my word for this, just google Cunningham Adamek or go to www.wewantarematch.com where there are links to every report and article on this unbelievable fight.

When the date, 27th February 2009, was announced for Adamek’s first defense of his IBF crown the media and fans alike again called for the rematch with ‘USS’ Cunningham. These calls fell on deaf ears. Instead his management first tried to secure BJ Flores before settling with Detroit’s Johnathon Banks as the sacrificial lamb. The fight, shown live on ShoBox, lacked the excitement and drama of Cunningham vs Adamek, or come to that most of this year’s fare.

The hype that followed was intriguing to put it mildly, statement after statement claiming that one big name after the other were to be Adamek’s next opponent. Some stayed in the frame longer than others, but most faded rather quickly. Adamek then went on record saying he wanted a big fight. Yet in interview after interview refused to even acknowledge the only real big fight possible, Adamek-Cunningham II, as a possibility when asked. Instead we got Adamek claiming that this Super Fight and that Super Fight were going to happen.

First off there was the whole boring super hyped on-off saga with Bernard Hopkins. Sorry, we all knew that was never going to happen. Even if Golden Boy had upped the ante I believe Adamek’s advisers would have found another reason to back out. Unless of course it was serious big bucks then they would have taken that fight and sacrificed their cash cow.

Adamek’s people were whinging left right and centre about the derisory offer made by Golden Boy. Come on, Adamek isn’t a name yet, the fee offered was far higher than he would get facing anyone else. The big money in boxing comes from TV companies; let’s face it, they rate Adamek as a ShoBox attraction, not a Showtime or HBO, so he’s never going to get another offer the size of the one made by B-Hop, unless it’s the fight everyone wants, Adamek - Cunningham II, which is a probable PPV candidate in both America and Europe.

Next up strange gurgling noises started emerging from the Florida swamplands. Have to be honest here and say I’m not really sure if these were ever really serious noises by Mr. Roy Jones Jnr. or just his career death throes post-Calzaghe embarrassment, sorry I mean annihilation.

Adamek’s entire entourage ears must have pricked up in unison on hearing RJ put his name in the frame, surely this would get them a good pay cheque (sorry I’m English and that’s the way we spell it), but after a short lived clusterf**k of “Jones-Adamek it’s on” headlines they went strangely quiet.

40 year old Jones reiterated his so called statement of intent, during an interview prior to the Jeff Lacy - Otis Griffin Light Heavyweight bout to try and breathe some life into the dead deal, by saying “He’s (Lacy) not really an opponent who was necessarily on my road map, but people don’t always work off the same road maps. It’d be a wonderful fight for Florida. But I’ll say what I already have been saying. I want Tomasz Adamek. I’ll fight Clinton Woods. And if those fights don’t get done, then sure, I’d fight Jeff.”

Hmm, what an exciting prospect...NOT, unless of course Jones gives Naazim Richardson a call. I have to admit I’d watch Jones - Adamek if Naaz was calling the shots in Jones’ corner. Problem is if Naaz was on board Adamek’s people would run a mile, so that’s a nonstarter.

The next “name in the frame” was yet another Light Heavyweight, this time Glen Johnson. Doing some headline grabbing of his own Johnson announces that he was disgusted by Hopkins offer to Adamek and says he’ll do a 50/50 purse split. That’s rather big of you Mr. Johnson BUT you don’t command the same kind of payday as does Mr. Hopkins. Surprise, surprise HBO passed on the match-up as did Showtime, effectively killing that boring fight off. OK, let’s say at this point that ESPN’s Dan Rafael reported the reason Showtime didn’t take the fight up is that they didn’t have the money in their budget to make the bout. I wonder who his source was, Showtime or Main Events?

Finally a Cruiserweight is rumoured to be in the frame as Adamek’s title challenger. When I heard this I had to check the date was May 1st not April 1st, you mean Adamek’s handlers were actually going to make this a proper legitimate Cruiserweight fight instead of a so-called Super Fight against an aging Light Heavyweight - reminds me, what were last year’s Super Fights like? Oh that’s right BORING and a huge waste of time and money, I know I’ll never dish out $50 for a PPV of any match up like them again (I know I’m a Brit, but last year I was in America so had to pay. If I’d been in the UK I would have got to watch them for free yet I would have still been disappointed as they were crap.)

Anyway back to the subject. Matt Godfrey is the latest name to be linked to the 10th July . Hate to say it but I predicted this weeks ago so in a way am pleased that he gets a shot. Although have to say I made the prediction based on Main Events and Ziggy Promotions ducking putting their man in with a true challenger.

Yeah I accept that you have just the one cash cow and you want to keep it grazing for as long as possible, but really - Matt Godfrey?

Boxing Scene and Bad Left Hook both carried the “rumour” stating that Adamek says he's 99% sure Godfrey will be his opponent. They also say that the fight will likely end up on one of those "special" ShoBox broadcasts, the night before Vic Darchinyan's fight with Joseph Agbeko on Showtime. Doesn’t sound like a rumour to me, sounds like a Main Events/Ziggy Promotions spun “leak” and I believe it was probably their intended match-up all along. Mind you, if this falls through they may have to ask Johnathon Banks back because, let’s face it, they’re running scared from their man going in with anyone of a decent pedigree and there’s no way they would give the people what they really want, Adamek-Cunningham II.

So why do I say they are running scared of their man going against former champ Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham. Here are a couple of clues for you.

Virtually all the media stated they had ‘USS’ Cunningham in front or level on their scoring. ‘USS’ Cunningham dominated the fight and won every round other than those with the knockdowns. In reality he should have also won round four as it was clearly going to be a 10-8 round for Cunningham, Adamek didn’t thrown a single punch until seconds from the end, so it should have been scored 10-9 for Cunningham.

Remember ‘USS’ Cunningham was down three times, yet Adamek won by split decision in front of a partisan mainly Polish crowd. The judges that see it Adamek’s way were both from New Jersey and one of those had been a last minute switch.

My final words on this are Main Events/Ziggy Promotions know they were lucky their man won, they don’t want to risk, yes I’m going to say it again, their ONLY cash cow in a fight they know he’ll lose.

A statement from the author:

Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro is a British boxing writer/photographer and sports publicist.

I have added this final statement because it could be thought that I am more than a little biased on this matter because I am Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham’s publicist as well as the creator and moving force behind www.wewantarematch.com

I can assure you I did not write this as a publicity piece on behalf of either. These are 100% my personal thoughts on this whole sorry subject and if I sound angry it’s because I am. It’s about time promoters and broadcasters put the fans first instead of putting out so much hype (yes I know I’m a publicist so am regularly responsible for creating hype) before dishing us up yet another load of crap.

If you think my thoughts on this subject are harsh just make sure you don’t get me onto the subject of the Heavyweights! Hmm, now there’s a thought - I wonder how many Heavyweights I can upset with just one article.