For those interested in the April 9 Integrated Sports pay-per-view event featuring Tomasz Adamek against Kevin McBride, here's the commercial for the fight.
To be perfectly honest, and I know some of the Adamek apologists among us might argue again, I find this to be truly disgraceful matchmaking and marketing -- particularly the "Tyson conqueror" line about McBride, who beat a sad, old version of Mike Tyson in one of the most depressing fights I've ever watched. A prime Mike Tyson would have eaten McBride's lunch. Hell, a late 90s Tyson would have thrashed him.
I mean, look, I get it. It's basically the only way to sell McBride, but I'm not paid to promote fights, so let's be real in case there's anybody out there who thinks this is a valid fight worth paying to see. Kevin McBride is 37 years old. Since beating Tyson in 2005, he's gone 2-4. He beat Byron Polley, got waxed by Mike Mollo, stopped by Andrew Golota, took three years off, and came back to lose to Zack Page. He entered a Prizefighter tournament last year and was out in the second round at the hands of Matt Skelton, having defeated Franklin Egobi (SD-3) in the opening round.
Main Events, who have done a wonderful job promoting in New Jersey and have fought the big money odds to stay a key player in American boxing, are hyping this as the final stepping stone. The word is that Adamek will fight Vitali Klitschko next, and if that happens, then fine, so be it. Adamek stays busy against guys like McBride and Michael Grant, both washed-up tall guys that they can say are "preparing" the Polish star for Klitschko on account of their height, but really I just can't see this fight sold on PPV and not criticize it for being exactly what it is. It's a sham fight that isn't competitive on paper and is truly not befitting a top five heavyweight. That's just my honest opinion.
But hey, there's the commercial, if you're still interested. HBO has a PPV show that night, too, headlined by Marcos Maidana taking on the dusty bones of Erik Morales, and that one will cost more money for something that's kind of similar, but will feature a better undercard (Guerrero-Katsidis and James Kirkland for now). And if you're still *still* interested, the Adamek-McBride card has Sadam Ali tentatively, as well as former trinketholder Sergei Liakhovich, but Liakhovich tends to pull out of fights more than he actually fights, so grain of salt.