IBF Trying to Book Adamek, Peter, Chambers and Rossy for Heavyweight Tournament

The IBF is known to love their "box-offs," and word is from BoxingScene.com that the sanctioning body is setting up another four-man tournament to figure out a contender to their titlist, Wladimir Klitschko.

Right now, the idea is simple. Eddie Chambers (35-2, 18 KO) would face Derric Rossy (25-2, 14 KO) in one fight. And in the other, Tomasz Adamek (43-1, 28 KO) would face Samuel Peter (34-4, 27 KO). The winners would then meet to determine a mandatory challenger for Klitschko.

There are issues that boxing fans will have, obviously. For one thing, Klitschko has already beaten Chambers and Peter, and decisively so. Klitschko's 12th-round KO of Chambers came in March of this year, while the Samuel Peter rematch came in September. Neither Chambers nor Peter were remotely close to competitive with Klitschko. Chambers also beat Peter in 2009.

Rossy is an OK fighter who hasn't beaten anyone very good. He got stopped the two times he stepped up in class, in 2008 against Alexander Dimitrenko (TKO-5) and in 2007 against Chambers (TKO-7).

Obviously the idea would be that Adamek, who is the most attractive and best fighter of the bunch, would win the tournament. But why would Adamek risk that? He's going to get a title shot against one of the Klitschko brothers at some point anyway, no matter if he "earns it" in a half-baked tournament or if he just keeps beating guys like Michael Grant and Vinny Maddalone. And as much as I believe Tomasz is a far better boxer than Peter, Peter presents him with some danger. From a risk-reward standpoint, there is nothing useful for Tomasz Adamek in this scenario.

Peter's manager described it as "an early Christmas present" for his fighter, and he ain't lying. Peter has no business fighting one of the Klitschkos again, not after his last two awful showings against the brothers. To even put him in line is almost embarrassing. I'm not saying this because Samuel Peter can't fight or isn't a tough dude, but I just have no desire to recycle thoroughly vanquished non-contenders.

I think we might be getting to the point where, in all candor, the Klitschkos have legitimately become boring. Not because of their styles or the fact that they don't talk nonsense about eating children and what have you, but because it's all proven ten times over. Nobody has been able to hang with them in years, and the one guy who might have a shot (David Haye), still isn't itching to fight them. If we're at a point where Samuel Peter is in line for yet another title shot, what does that say? I hate "boxing is dead," but the heavyweight division is at least on life support.