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Showtime ShoBox Recap

February 27, 2009

Prudential Center-Newark, New Jersey

The Ring/IBF Cruiserweight (200 pounds) 12 Round Championship Match:

Tomasz Adamek (36-1, 24 KO's, 199 pounds) (c) vs. Johnathon Banks (20-0, 14 KO's, 200 pounds)

Adamek won both of these championships in his last match. The Ring Championship was vacant and had last been held by England's David Haye who vacated the belt to move up to heavyweight. Adamek took the IBF Championship from Steve Cunningham in the exciting 12-round split decision on December 11, 2008 in the same building that is holding this match. In front of possibly the loudest crowd to see a boxing match in the United States last year, Adamek dropped Cunningham 3 times, but appeared to be largely dominated in the rest of the match. Adamek was even dominated in some of the rounds where he scored a knockdown. All of the judges, scored one of the rounds in which Adamek scored a knockdown only 10-9 for the Pole, because he had been losing the round badly prior to scoring the knockdown. This outstanding match is still frequently replayed on Versus and worth going out of a person's way to see. The full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/3/6/recap-of-tomasz-adamek-vs-steve-cunningham.html Adamek is making his first defense of both of these belts.

Adamek began his professional boxing career competing primarily at 175 pounds in his native Poland. He would eventually capture the WBC 175-pound Championship, but drained by the weight cut lost the belt in a wide 12-round unanimous decision to Chad Dawson on February 3, 2007 at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida. Following that loss, Adamek to returned to Europe to begin to campaign at 200 pounds.

The Pole may enjoy the biggest hometown advantage of any boxer in the United States when he competes at this arena. The immigrant Polish-American population makes the Prudential Center sound like the Polish national soccer team is playing when Adamek enters the ring. Many of the fans have their faces painted in red and white (the colors of the Polish flag) and are wearing soccer scarves. The Prudential Center appears to have been annexed by Poland for Adamek matches for as much as it composed of Polish fans and how little it resembles the typical United States boxing crowds.

Adamek is The Ring champion at 200 pounds.

Banks had a solid amateur boxing career in which he won 3 United States National Amateur Championships at 178 pounds.

The challenger turned pro on July 30, 2004 with a 4-round unanimous decision win over Deandre Cole at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut and has been moved along rapidly in his career since that match. Banks won a regional championship at 200 pounds in his twelfth match as a pro. He made 2 defenses of that title, before vacating the title to compete for more major belts.

Banks' last match was a 12-round majority decision over Vincenzo Rossitto to win the vacant IBO title at 200 pounds on July 12, 2008 at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, Germany. That belt will not be on the line in this match. Banks was offered a more lucrative match for another alphabet soup title at 200 pounds in Germany, but turned it down for the chance to have a high profile match in his home country and become the true champion of the world at 200 pounds.

Banks enters this match as The Ring's number 9 contender at 200 pounds.

At 26-years-old, Banks is 6 years younger then the 32-year-old-Adamek. Banks has the height advantage standing 6' 3" tall, while Adamek stands 6' 1" tall. The challenger has the reach advantage with a 76" wingspan, compared to the 75" wingspan of the champion. Neither boxers' unofficial weight approaching match time is available. However, it is obvious that Banks is the much heavier boxer in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

The judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are from Pennsylvania, Quebec and New Jersey. The referee is Eddie Cotton.

Banks wins a slow round 1, 10-9. Adamek seemed to figure out how to hit Banks in the last 15 seconds of round 1 and landed several hard punches. It was nearly enough to win the round. If Adamek is able to connect with Banks as easily as it appeared he did in the final few seconds of the round, the Pole may enjoy a short night. Also, the boxers' feet kept getting tangled in round 1. That does not normally happen when 2 boxers using the same stance face each other. That is normally a problem when a boxer employing the orthodox stance faces a boxer using the southpaw stance. The challenger wins a deliberately paced round 2, 10-9. In round 2, Banks has started to drop his lead left hand completely down. This leaves Banks completely exposed for Adamek to land the straight right hand that he used to knock down Cunningham twice. Appropriately, Showtime now cuts to a shot of Cunningham watching anxiously in the crowd. Cunningham wants a rematch with Adamek, badly. Adamek is more aggressive in winning round 3, 10-9. After 3 rounds, Banks leads on my scorecard, 29-28.

With around 1 minute to go in round 4, Adamek is hit with a big left hook and has some severe swelling around his right eye. Banks wins round 4 solidly, 10-9. After round 4, Adamek's corner gives the champion the same curious advice they have given their boxer after all of the early rounds. They want Adamek to be more patient and wait for Banks to get tired. The problem is Adamek is doing almost nothing. That way, unless Banks is completely out of shape, the American is not going to get tired boxing at this pace. The crowd is having to control themselves to not boo this dull match. Banks landed a counter left hook several times to win round 5, 10-9. The challenger came into this match expected to only throw hard right hands. However, Banks now has Adamek's lead right timed and is countering it almost every time with the powerful left hook. That change has caught Adamek off-guard. Adamek will have to throw the right hand as part of combinations or abandon the punch altogether, because Banks has rendered it otherwise useless. With 1:04 to go in round 6, Banks pulls down on Adamek's head as the champion was attempting to throw a hook to the body. What resulted was the champion throwing a hard left hook to Banks' groin. The referee is calling timeout with 1:00 to go in the round. No warning is being issued to Adamek, because this was clearly an accidental foul created by Banks. The crowd is whistling at Banks, apparently for needing time to recover after being hit in the groin. After a less then 1 minute stoppage, the action is resumed. In round 6, Adamek started to go to the body of Banks and became much more aggressive. Adamek wins round 6 easily, 10-9. However, after 6 rounds, Banks leads on my scorecard, 58-56. Both Nick Charles and Steve Farhood who are doing commentary of this event for Showtime have the match even after 6 rounds, 57-57.

Adamek wins round 7 big, 10-9. The champion's body punches are breaking down the challenger mentally and physically. Banks' punch-output is down and now both of his hands are very low. Additionally, Banks is starting to get the look on his face of a boxer who knows he is beaten. A chopping right hand to the jaw sends Banks down to the canvas with 1:55 to go in round 8. Banks is hurt very badly, but up and walking around at the referee's count of 8. However, the challenger's eyes do not look right and the referee may stop it right here. The referee is going to allow the action to resume with 1:38 to go in the round, but this match is probably only going to go a few more seconds. With 1:31 to go in round 8, the referee moves in to stop the match with Adamek finishing a combination that leaves Banks slumped in a heap in the corner. The referee was trying to move in to stop the match, before Adamek finished his combination and knocked out Banks. The referee probably should have not allowed Banks to continue when he did not look right answering the 8-count. However, it was an okay judgment call in the heat of the moment. Adamek's power was too difficult for both the referee and Banks to account for in this match.

The official outcome courtesy of Joe Antonacci is that: at 1:30 of round 8 the winner by technical knockout and still the Cruiserweight Champion of the World, Tomasz "Goral" Adamek. The win moves Adamek to 37-1 with now 25 wins coming by way of knockout.

Adamek said in his post match interview said he might also like to win a heavyweight championship. It appears Adamek said the name Vitali Klitschko, but that did not get translated.

Adamek is clearly the best boxer in the world at 200 pounds and was very good in this match. The Pole started slowly, but showed he knew what he was doing by winning via knockout. On all of the official judges' scorecards Adamek was ahead after 7 rounds: 67-66, 67-66, 68-65. That makes it very hard to in retrospect complain about anything Adamek did in this match. Adamek now has a few options for his next opponents. Bernard Hopkins is teasing a move up to 200 pounds to challenge for Adamek's belt. That would be the biggest possible money match Adamek could make and he should take it immediately if Hopkins is serious. There is only 1 current 200-pounder that Adamek could make a lot of money with at this time, Cunningham. There needs to be a rematch of that first contest. It should happen back at the Prudential Center and Cunningham would probably accept it in seconds. Adamek has no business at heavyweight. He reportedly walks around in the 205 pound range. In a best case scenario, he would be giving up 5.5" in height, 7" in reach and 35 pounds to any of the current heavyweight champions. Adamek would be best served to wait for David Haye to be knocked out by one of the Klitschko brothers to bring another high profile name back into the 200-pound division, rather then go chasing down belts at heavyweight.

Banks dropped out of The Ring rankings following this loss. He did well, but is still very flawed defensively. Banks is still very young and will probably be forced to go compete for fringe titles throughout Europe, before he is given this type of high profile match, again.

This was a rather average show and an easy event to skip. However, Adamek matches in the future should be ones people go out of their way to see. He possesses a lot of power and an Adamek match from the Prudential Center is quite the spectacle.