I was disappointed in how Adamek fought Dawson and lost. Adamek spent most of the fight outside, or out of range, and not throwing much at all. He was never clever. When he did let his hands go, he knocked Dawson down in the 10th, and had him badly hurt. He won the last two rounds also as he started to go after Dawson and close the gap in range. Had Adamek fought the entire Dawson fight up close I think he would have won -even without being too clever. After three or four rounds of doing nothing on the outside a fighter has to ask himself: "What the hell am I doing out here other than getting picked off?"
Adamek has won all of his fights since that Dawson loss and he has moved up in weight in all of them. When some fighters get older they find it easier to fight at a heavier weight than they did when they were younger and this is perhaps the case with Adamek. For the record, this fight with Cunningham is at cruiserweight -a full 200 lbs- which is much more than he has been fighting at his entire career. Adamek is giving away a bit of height, some reach, and he may be giving away some size to Cunningham who may be a slightly bigger man. He will not, however, be giving away speed as Cunningham is not as fast as Dawson and probably not as fast as Adamek. Adamek will surely be the most skillfull fighter Cunningham has ever fought.
This fight is going to be more or less the same fight he had against Dawson only Cunningham is bigger. Adamek has to use his skill and go out and rip away at Cunningham for the first four rounds and make Cunningham spit out his guts and lose his desire to win. If he goes out there and waits and throws a one-two and then waits or holds and walks around he is surely going to lose.
