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Two very popular Polish stars will get in the ring with one another in a somewhat strange superfight on October 24, as reigning world cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek will put his championship on hold for at least one fight to take a money bout with veteran heavyweight Andrew Golota.
Adamek (38-1, 26 KO) is riding a seven-fight win streak since jumping from 175 pounds after a one-sided loss to Chad Dawson in 2007. He won the vacant Ring Magazine cruiserweight championship in December 2008 in his Fight of the Year contender against Steve Cunningham, and has defended twice since, against Johnathon Banks and Bobby Gunn. Unable to find a big fight -- though why he can't fight Cunningham again is beyond me -- he's going up in weight for the money.
Golota (41-7-1, 33 KO) is best remembered as "the low blow guy" from his fights way back when with Riddick Bowe, and later as a hapless opponent of Mike Tyson, a fight that was changed to a no-contest when Tyson tested positive for marijuana. Golota has fought a lot of names and semi-names of a couple of strange heavyweight generations: Lamon Brewster, Chris Byrd, John Ruiz, Kevin McBride, Orlin Norris, Jesse Ferguson, Tim Witherspoon, Michael Grant, and of course, Lennox Lewis (L-KO-1), Bowe and Tyson.
Still, Golota is 6'4", weighs around 240 most fight nights, and has a 79-inch reach. Adamek is about 6'1" with a 75-inch reach and has never weighed more than 201 pounds for any pro fight.
Adamek still plans to fight Bernard Hopkins in January if that fight can be made. I think he's risking a fair amount taking a fight with a bigger man, even given Golota's "issues" and the fact that he's 41 years old. We've seen Adamek hurt before (though his chin is pretty damn good) and it'll be interesting to see what he does with the punch of a legit heavyweight.
And at the very least, they'll make some good money. It feels halfway like an exhibition fight, but I say best of luck to both guys.