Tomasz Adamek pulled out the biggest win of his career in one of the best fights of the year when he took a hotly contested split decision over Steve Cunningham to become the Cruiserweight Champion of the world.
Going into the bout, Cunningham was the IBF Champion and The Ring’s number one rated cruiserweight with Adamek at a close second in light of his dominant stoppage win over O’Neil Bell, the former undisputed champion. It was an important fight that could go a long way in restoring credibility to what had become a dismal division, and both men proved up to the challenge of making it happen.
The crowd was absolutely electric thanks to an enormous Polish contingent of fans. Dressed in red and white, they shouted throughout a dull first round, refusing to let the energy level sink for even a moment. And they were rewarded with fireworks not long after.
Cunningham boxed well most of the night but didn’t have the power to keep Adamek honest. Adamek’s strategy was to get through the first two minutes and change before going on the attack, at which point he would score the heaviest blows of the round. In round two, he dropped Cunningham with a combination right at the bell to put himself ahead early.
Round four was the best of the night and perhaps the round of the year. Cunningham seemed to stun Adamek early in the round and went on the offensive, punishing the Pole with combinations against the ropes. Adamek somehow stayed on his feet and ended up dropping Cunningham again at the end of the round, turning what looked like a potential 10-8 round for the champion into a losing round.
The ebb and flow of the fight continued all night as Cunningham boxed brilliantly for long stretches only to be stung by the shots of Adamek almost on cue with 30 seconds left in every round. Cunningham again went down in round eight, and seemed to be hurt on that occasion whereas he got up fairly easily from the other knockdowns, but Cunningham rallied with great passion, appearing to win three of the last four rounds. He seemed to have several opportunities to score a knockdown of his own in the later rounds as Adamek wore down, but Cunningham ultimately hung back, seemingly taking his chances with the judges.
In the end, it wasn’t enough as Adamek deservedly took a split decision to become the new Cruiserweight Champion. One judge saw it for Cunningham at 114-112, which was a bit of a mystery, while the others had it 115-112 and 116-110. A rematch is surely in high demand after a great, great fight where both men showed what made them champions.
After losing a pretty wide decision to Chad Dawson in 2007, Adamek has come back impressively to become the champion at 190lbs. With Dawson being his only loss, Adamek may start receiving pound-for-pound votes in the near future if he is able to dominate the division.
The cruiserweight division has given fans some great, great fights in recent years, including the war between James Toney and Vassily Jirov in 2003, the grueling slugfest between Jean-Marc Mormeck and O’Neil Bell in 2006 and now the seesaw battle trading boxing and brawling between Adamek and Cunningham to cap off 2008.
