Tomasz Adamek Fight Nears, Judah in Title Hunt

Tomasz Adamek (left) pounded out a career win over Steve Cunningham to win the championship in December 2008.

The ongoing saga of who will be The Ring magazine and IBF cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek's next opponent has nearly reached its end.

Sources close to the negotiations say that it will be Matt “Too Smooth” Godfrey who hails from Providence, Rhode Island and fights out of Jimmy Burchfield's CES stable. Godfrey, rated #9 by the IBF, has a record of 18-1, 10 knockouts with the only loss coming last year against the Czech Republic's Rudolf Kraj in a WBC title elimination fight.

Should the Adamek vs. Godfrey fight take place it will occur on July 10 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The final call should be made by Showtime execs by Wednesday.

Sources also say there is still a small chance that since the contract for the Godfey fight is still not signed that a deal could emerge with Showtime for an Adamek vs. Glen Johnson fight on Aug. 1 which would take place in Newark.

There is frustration on the part of Adamek's backers, especially when they learned that HBO paid over $3 million for last weekend's mediocre Chad Dawson vs. Antonio Tarver rematch. Adamek's people believe their fighter is superior in terms of action and that a fight against Glen Johnson, which could have been made for $1 million less, would have also offered greater entertainment value for the fans.


Zab Judah (right) came up short against Miguel Cotto at a fight held in Madison Square Garden in June 2007.

Adamek's camp has been disappointed with both the pace and nature of the negotiations in terms of attempting to get their man a fight on either Showtime or HBO. Neither network has expressed the desire to put up serious money for an Adamek fight. Sources have said that neither network wants to go anywhere near an Adamek vs. Roy Jones, Jr. fight and have said that Bernard Hopkins is completely out of the question since his financial idiosyncrasies are beyond ridiculous. They said Hopkins' recent comments indicating that he made a $1.2 million offer to fight Adamek was totally untrue

Adamek's people simply want their man to remain active so he can capitalize on his surging popularity and build on his exciting wins over Steve Cunningham and Johnathon Banks. They indicate the plan after his next fight could be a title unification against one of the other titlists in a bout that would likely take place in Europe.

In other news, reports are beginning to surface that former world champ Zab Judah (37-6, 25 knockouts) may face fellow former titlist Randall Bailey (39-6, 35 knockouts) on the Mayweather vs. Marquez undercard on July 18 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Sources say the intriguing fight would be for the vacant IBF 140-pound title that will likely go empty when Juan Urango steps up to the welterweight division to meet WBC 147-pound belt-holder Andre Berto on May 30.


May 2009