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Philadelphia's Boxing Heritage

[Previous entry: "Cunningham Willing to Face #1 Ranked Adamek in Chicago"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Euro-Beat Update: Weign-In Chaotic for Klitschko-Thompson!"]

07/12/2008 Archived Entry: "Adamek Halts Gomez, Findley Stops Fonfara in ‘Return of the Warrior!’"

Adamek Halts Gomez, Findley Stops Fonfara in ‘Return of the Warrior!’

By Juan C. Ayllon at ringside
Photos by Adam Cybart

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Adamek (right) bounces a hard right off Gomez's chin


CHICAGO—The main event was about to begin. A handful of Polish fans who’d flown in from Poland to cheer their hero, Tomasz Adamek, sang the famous patriotic Cuban song, “Guantanamera” at ringside with a tweak; they made it their own by interjecting his name into the lyric. Clearly, Adamek is a source of national pride with the Poles, who came in droves. And, this evening, he did not disappoint, as he dominated and ultimately stopped durable Gary Gomez in seven rounds.

The former World Boxing Council Light Heavyweight Champion, Adamek (201 lbs., 34-1, 23 KO’s) had stopped former unified cruiserweight champ Gary Bell for the International Boxing Federation’s Cruiserweight Title Eliminator in April. The man at the top of that heap, IBF Cruiserweight Champion Steve Cunningham had made it clear that he’d like to honor that mandatory shot soon and would be watching Adamek’s fight versus Gomez (201 lbs., 18-9-1, 23 KO’s) very closely. The pressure to perform was on.

Stepping down from the ring before the main event starts, promoter Dominic Pesoli says, “It’s hot up there!” Indeed. Beneath glaring TV lights in the center of the Moroccan village themed Aragon Ballroom, with its spires and ornate décor, officials and cornermen sweat as they exit the ring. The crowd roars as ring announcer Thomas Treiber introduces Adamek.

The bell rings. Adamek digs a hard right to Gomez’s protruding belly moments later. Six-foot one-and-a-half, Adamek circles, pops stiff jabs and strafes the head and torso of his stubbier foe with occasional rights.

The mood is festive; there’s stomping and singing toward the back of the auditorium.

Adamek jars with a flashing left-right to the head. He bounces four stiff punches off Gomez, who appears flustered but lands a glancing left hook to the jaw at the bell.

Their heads collide in the second round as Gomez comes in with a right hook. Adamek digs to the body with both fists. Adamek is pot-shotting Gomez, who follows him around the ring with a facial demeanor that's at once resolute and resigned, so much so that you can almost hear the words, “I think I can, I think I can.”

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Sweat flies as the two exchange blows

Referee Gerald Scott warns Adamek to keep his punches up as a low left digs just below Gomez's beltline. Resuming, Adamek jars Gomez with an overhand right and sends spray flying from Gomez’s head with a subsequent right-left-right combination.

Gomez’s brain is no doubt rattling in his head in the third and fourth rounds as Adamek pounds four or five and steps back to the side. Gomez misses with a wide left hook and, later, almost doubles over from a hard right to the midriff. Gomez lands an overhand right to the face and Adamek ties up.

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Gomez recoils as Adamek (right) lands a chopping right to his head

Like a master jazz musician soloing across the street at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, Adamek works and tweaks his boxing chops, ducking here, firing in salvoes, nodding, and re-engaging as he pleases. And like the aficionados packing the Green Mill, the audience cheers wildly as he completes another dizzying riff.

Adamek jars Gomez’s head back with four consecutive sharp jabs; he lands a sharp left right combination to the head and spins out. Pop-pop-pow! Reset. He rattles Gomez’s head with lefts rights and rips the lower abdomen with two more. Carried away in the moment, he swings—and misses—with a wide left hook. Gomez makes him pay with a couple rights on the ropes before he escapes.

A concerned lady seated behind me bellows, “Stick and move! Stick and move!”

Backing him to the ropes, Gomez digs a borderline left to the beltline near rounds end.

Early in the sixth, Gomez takes a hard digging left to the stomach and gives Adamek a look as if to say, “C’mon.” Adamek continues to stick and move, opening up with three and four punch volleys and stepping to the side.

The crowd begins a clap and chant: Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap-“Olay!”

Intermittent cheers counter for the underdog: "Gomez, Gomez, Gomez!"

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

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A lead right jars and turns Gomez, who regroups and trudges after Adamek.

Good workout so far for Adamek, but maybe it’s time to turn it up a notch or two.

Suddenly, in between rounds six and seven, there’s a commotion in Gomez’s corner. Seated, Gomez grimaces, leans forward on his stool and grasps his right glove gingerly. Referee Gerald Scott approaches, leans close, and exchanges a few words with his people. He nods his head and stands upright. Suddenly, Scott waves his hands emphatically over his head. It’s over.

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Referee Gerald Scott raises Adamek's hand in victory

Boos echo in the cavernous hall. Where’s the gratifying knockout? However, disappointment gives way to cheers. After all, Gomez had never been stopped in 28 professional bouts. Until now. Treiber announces that referee Gerald Scott has officially stopped the bout at :01 into the seventh round.

Gomez clambers down the ring steps with his crew, still grasping his glove. Asked what the trouble is, a clearly pained Gomez says in a husky voice, “My hand!” A second acknowledges that it’s probably broken, and he disappears with his team into the jubillant crowd.

In the co-main event, Warsaw, Poland by-way-of-Chicago’s tall and reedy Andrzej Fonfara (159 lbs., 10-1, 3 KO’s) gave his fans something to cheer about for about a round and a half. Then something went terribly wrong, as Gary, Indiana’s resident middleweight muscleman, Derrick Findley (160 lbs., 11-2, 6 KO’s) stopped him in the second.

Two days earlier at the press conference, Fonfara held his fists out three feet apart at chest height, his elbows at his side, and indicated that he could not fight in that space, because that was Findley’s domain with his great strength; he’d have to fight using the “long jab…the right…and distance."

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Fonfara (left) lands a stiff jab to Findley's head

It’s now round one and Fonfara is following his game plan well, keeping it at a distance, jabbing and circling. He jars Findley with a hard left-right combination that sends him stumbling to the ropes. He’s popping Findley’s head back with jabs. Toward rounds end, Findley muscles his way in and lands a hard right to the head, drawing gasps from the crowd. Still, Fonfara is in control.

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Fonfara jars Findley with a hard right as referee Celestino Ruiz watches closely

Picking up where he left off, Findley jars Fonfara with hard rights and lefts in the second. Breaking from a clinch, Fonfara punches from the distance. Suddenly, in close, Findley rock him again with a hard right and left. One of his punches strays lay and referee Celestino Ruiz warns Findley to keep his punches up.

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Fonfara is down!

Jumping forward, Findley explodes a vicious right-left to Fonfara’s head, dropping him hard on his backside. Rising, Fonfara appears okay and re-establishes the jab. However, his reprieve is short-lived. Another lunging left-right bobbles Fonfara’s head and dumps him into the ropes. Fonfara wobbles on unsteady legs. A right slams into his head at the bell and he collapses like a dropped sack of potatoes. He rises. However, he lurches forward on drunken legs and referee Celestino Ruiz waves it off at 2:59 of round two.

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Findley (right) punishes Fonfara with a vengeance

The crowd is delirious, calling to mind Sam Sheridan’s observation in his book, A Fighter’s Heart: They cheer the punch, not the athlete so much. Regardless of who scores it, the thrill of a well landed punch -- or a knockout -- generates spine tingling thrills for the fight crowd.

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Findley raises his hands in victory while a groggy Fonfara struggles to rise

Afterwards, Findley’s promoter, Octavius James laughs and says, “This goes to show how ready Derrick is, staying fit in the gym.” He also cites Findley’s brave decision loss to undefeated former Olympian and rising star Andre Ward as proof that Findley’s basically willing and ready to fight anyone, anywhere on relatively short notice.

Krakow, Poland’s Mariusz Wach (261 lbs., 16-0, 7 KO’s) and Puyallup, Washington’s Eric Boose (236 lbs., 14-2-1, 8 KO’s) posted a reminder as to why, bad or good, the public focuses so much attention on the heavyweight division. With their ponderous and thudding, meaty punches, they entertained, with Wach pounding out a seventh round technical knockout in the end.

Boose, in his braids is the more muscled of the two, while the taller Wach, with his long, protruding chin is more square and slab-like, who with his shaven head could pass for a European mob enforcer.

It’s the first round and they’re trading jabs. A right thuds on that prominent chin of Wach’s. He retreats, and then suddenly he torques Boose’s head with a hard right. Another jars. A third one has the crowd roaring with lusty approval. The crisis subsides. Boose backs Wach to the ropes with hurtful jabs to the face. Wach retaliates with a smashing right to the mouth, but other than reddening Boose’s face and rousing the crowd, it has little effect. Incensed, Boose drives Wach to the ropes with both fists and is shoved off by Wach at the bell.

Boose is troubling Wach in the second with hard left jabs to the face. He’s the aggressor now and unloads with both fists. Wach covers up, jabs and retreats. Boose crashes a single left hook to the jaw that’s shrugged off. Continuing to press, Boose swarms Wach on the ropes. Wach covers. Wach lands a hard pair of rights to the head, catches one, and returns two more at rounds end.

Wach slashes with a long uppercut to the jaw and retreats from a steady steam of left jabs in the third. A thudding right bounces off the side of Boose’s head. The crowd roars. After some light sparring, he lands another. He follows probing jabs with a pair of rights. Boose smothers him on the ropes. Boose digs a hard right to the midsection and catches a glancing right off the top of the head as the round wraps.

Boose jumpstarts the fourth jabbing and pressuring. Backing Wach to the ropes, Boose swings and misses with a wide right. Wach digs a hard right to Boose’s side. A right to the side of the head stuns Boose, who soldiers forward firing ponderous lefts and rights. Referee Pete Podgorski interrupts the round to allow Boose’s corner to secure loose tape hanging from one of Boose’s gloves.

Resuming, they trade hard rights. Boose bounces a looping right off Wach’s head on the ropes and bounces another off Wach’s shoulder. Another pair of rights thump on Wach’s skull on the ropes. Wach bounces a hard right off Boose’s temple at the bell.

The action picks up in the fifth, as Wach bombs the head and the side with four hard rights. Weathering the onslaught, Boose attacks. Wach jars Boose with two more rights. Jabbing , he bounces another, jabs, and drops his guard down to lure Boose in. Another right explodes off Boose’s head. Boose is jabbing. Another jarring right to his head; then one to his side—and yet another to the head! Wach is loading up on his punches, but catching return fire, too. The crowd roars with hearty approval. Boose eats a right and digs a left hook to Wach’s side.

Wach is breathing through his mouth agape as he retreats and covers in the sixth. Boose continues to press forward behind stiff jabs. Wach smothers an attempted assault on the ropes with his long, gangly arms. Boose drives home a couple of hard jabs like pile drivers to Wach’s face. He bounces a left hook off the side of Wach’s head. Wach spears with a stiff jab to the face. Wach leans in with his hands down. He jabs and turns Boose with a smashing right and follows with a series of jarring rights to the head.

It’s now the seventh round and, once again, referee Pete Podgorski has the loose tape fixed on Boose’s gloves.

A picture of confidence, Wach leans back in a corner, smiles, winks and nods to his countrymen behind me. It’s Guantanamera, Wach style.

Boose’s corner is taking forever to fix the tape. Perhaps it had something to do with their charge returning to the wrong corner the last couple of rounds. Resuming, Wach jars Boose with a smashing right to the head. Boose looks gassed and unsteady. Still he pumps the jab, a string of spittle hanging from his open mouth.

Suddenly, Wach pounces. A pair of rights crash into Boose’s skull, driving him to the ropes. Two more send him stumbling to the adjacent ropes. Like a cork driven in high waves, Boose slides back along the ropes. Wach is bludgeoning Bose with smashing lefts and rights. Boose is now defenseless in a semi-stupor. He’s being pummeled. Mercifully, Podgorski jumps in and waves it off at 1:53 of the seventh round. Wach and the lusty crowd got their knockout, although it’s really a technical knockout.

Glowice, Poland’s chiseled super middleweight Piotr Wilczewski (170 lbs., 19-0, 5 KO’s) boxed carefully, then disposed of Memphis, Tennessee’s Thomas Reid (170 lbs., 35-22-1 13 KO’s) in the second round of a scheduled six rounder.

After a relatively tranquil first, Wilczewski digs a smacking right hook to Reid’s side. Opening up with both hands, he tags Reid with several hard rights to the head. Firing back, Reid misses with a wide left hook. Reid bounces a hard right off Wilczewski’s head. He follows with a pair of hard jabs to Wilczewski’s chin and gets jarred with hard right. A follow-up right left dumps Reid on his side. He staggers up at about the count of four and lurches forward, forcing referee Gerald Scott to wave it off. It’s a TKO at 2:59 seconds into the second round.

Chicago’s hard-swinging Gerald Taylor (174 lbs., 3-0, 3 KO’s) and Berkley, Missouri’s Walter Foster (171.5 lbs., 3-0, 3 KO’s) were virtually mirror images of each other; both stocky African Americans with close-cropped hair in matching white trunks, they looked and fought similarly. There was no ring science here, just pure, unadulterated swinging, grappling and knockdowns. In the end, Taylor pulled it out in a four round decision.

In a feverish first round, Foster swings and misses. Taylor laughs. Taylor returns the favor. A clubbing right drops Taylor, who’s no longer laughing. He takes a standing eight count from referee Celestino Ruiz. Foster ties him up and later ducks under a wild left. More wrestling. Hitting and holding, Taylor bounces a short chopping right off Foster’s jaw. Breaking, a whistling right wobbles Taylor, who grabs hold. Foster is warned for something and Taylor nods to someone in the audience. Suddenly, a short left uppercut drops Foster. And eight count ensues and the bell rings just as they’re about to charge one another again.

Foster drops from a short left-half push in the second and receives an eight count. Wrestling again, Foster goes down from another very short left.

Slugging and charging in, Taylor’s knees buckle from return fire. He lunges at Foster, ripping lefts and rights to his sides. He slips to the canvas and the adroit Ruiz correctly rules it a slip. Resuming, a sneaky right uppercut suddenly drops Taylor, who receives an eight count.

Foster smells blood and comes at him full bore. Taylor is rocked again, this time with a left-right hook combination, and ties up at the bell. They both nod in respect to one another as they return to their corners.

It’s now the third. Foster digs a right and a left to the chin that buckles Taylor’s knees again. This bout is not for the weak-kneed! Tied-up, Taylor complains about some infraction.

“Stop crying! Box!” says a lady from the audience.

Foster blocks several shots and pumps the jab. Now, his knees buckle! He doubles over from lefts and rights to the stomach, and a left hook to the chin drops him. He rises. Taylor pounces and is tied up for his efforts.

Referee Ruiz is getting a workout constantly separating these two!

Foster is rocked by a lone left hook and stumbles to regroup. Taylor swarms him on the ropes and is tied up. Resuming at rings center, Foster drops from another left to the chin and receives an eight count.

The fourth round is an amalgam of wrestling, slugging and more grabbing. .

“Less wrestling, more boxing,” shouts the lady behind me.

They trade hard, fire single hooks, and fall into yet another prolonged clinch at the bell.

Judges scored the bout 40-32 and 39-33 for Gerald Taylor, granting him a unanimous decision win.

Angular and muscular Chicago cruiserweight Deividas Nekrasas (197 lbs., 3-0, 3 KO’s) stopped the frightened Memphis, Tennessee’s Quinton Smith (196 lbs., 2-3) with a punch that many didn’t see, and for those who did, appeared to be of the glancing variety.

Nekrasas patiently stalks in the first, as Smith bounces and skitters about the ring nervously, tossing frenetic jabs, rights and lefts.

A left hook to the top of a ducking Smith lands, visibly hurts him and causes him to hold on. Resuming, Nekrasas pursues his frightened opponent. He flashes a right to the head. Smith drops to a prone position. He shakes his head, “no” as referee Pete Podgorski is about to begin his count. Podgorski waves off the bout at 1:44 into the first round.

An official wishing to remain anonymous says afterwards, “That was almost like a lower level version of Ali and Liston II. I have seen this game long enough to know a dive.”

And, with that, the festivities were over. When informed that IBF Cruiserweight Champ Steve Cunningham said he was willing to fight Adamek here in Chicago, a gentleman visiting from Warsaw said he’d gladly make the trip again to see that. We all would.

Guantanamera, Adamek.


Main Events, 8 Count Productions, and Ziggy Promotions promoted “Return of the Warrior," a portion of which was broadcast by ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights.

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Adam Cybart (left) with Andrew Golota at ringside

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