By Matt Yanofsky and Arben Paloka
Tomasz Adamek is originally from Poland, but when he fights thousands of miles away at the Prudential Center in Newark, he is right at home. 10,123 screaming Polish fans packed the arena last night for his second fight at heavyweight and chanted non stop from the moment they entered the building; and they sure had a lot to cheer for.
Adamek retained his IBF International heavyweight title with a hard fought twelve round unanimous decision over 2004 US Olympian Jason “Big Six” Estrada. Estrada came out aggressive against Adamek, who is generally a slow starter, tagging the Secaucus based Pole with a plethora of overhand rights. Adamek started to take control of the pace beginning in the third, working off of multi punch combinations to Estrada’s head.
The bout continued to be fought in close quarters, with Adamek putting together combinations, while Estrada used a Floyd Mayweather style defense before countering with right hands and left hooks. It was evident that this fight was a test of wills and who would be the first to break down. Adamek has been in similar battles in the past, but was a true test for him at an unfamiliar weight.
Estrada landed a number of good left hooks that stopped Adamek in his tracks, but he was unable to capitalize, electing to consistently throw just one punch. Adamek had trouble with the slick and motivated Estrada, but continually used a high punch output to take competitive rounds.
Estrada began to fight with more urgency in the 10th, using clubbing rights ala Samuel Peter, but Adamek’s famed chin kept him out of any serious danger. The challenger got off to a solid start early in the 11th, but a consistent workrate by the champion over the next round and a half guided him to victory.
Scores were 115-113, 116-112, and a questionable 118-110 for Adamek. 15Rounds scored the contest 116-112 for Adamek, as did a number of ringsiders.
Adamek improves to 40-1 with 27 KO’s, while Estrada, who came in at a career light 237 lbs and displayed that he is no push over, returns to Providence, RI 16-3 (4 KO’s).
The victory most likely sets up an April 24 HBO aired match up between Adamek and heavyweight contender Cris Arreola, whose trainer Henry Ramirez was ringside for tonight’s action.
Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin is back in the New York groove! After a year layoff, Quillin stepped back into the ring against a fearsome opponent in Fernando Zuniga. They wasted no time in getting to know each other, as they immediately began exchanging punches. In the first round, Quillin had the upper hand as he landed two strong left hooks, but Zuniga is certainly no slouch himself, as he closed out the round with an illegal blow to the back of Quillin's head hoping to impose himself as the bully in the ring.
They continued until the third round, where Quillin landed a strong right hand and Zuniga followed up with a right hand of his own. For Quillin, the rust was definitely there. His punches were sharp and strong,
but they came only a few at a time. Still, Zuniga's awkward style makes it difficult for anyone to throw solid combinations.
As they entered the seventh round, Quillin was in control, and it looked as if Zuniga was worn down. Quillin continued with his workrate while Zuniga was content with looking for a knockout punch that wouldn't come. By the time the final round came along, a tired Quillin popped his jab to keep the resurging Zuniga at bay. It was too little too late as the final scores read 98-92, 100-90, and 100-90 for Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin.
Quillan is now 21-0 with 15 KO’s. Zuniga drops to 28-10 with 20 KO’s. The victory also gave those at ringside free chocolate, as Quillin continued his famed post fight tradition of tossing candy into the crowd.
Popular Atlantic City, NJ based Pole Patrick “The Machine” Majewski scored an impressive six round unanimous decision over Youngstown, OH’s Anthony Pietrantonio. Majewski came into the ring with a buzz cut and plain red trunks, thus bared a resemblance to his countryman Tomasz Adamek. Majewski is also an all action fighter, who will give two to take one if necessary. Fortunately for him, it wasn’t tonight.
Majewski controlled all six rounds of the super middleweight contest, tagging the awkward Pietrantonio with hard right hands and thunderous hooks to the body. Pietrantonio was hurt in the third and sixth rounds, but represented the fighting city that he hails from well by never giving up. Scores were 60-54 on all three cards for Majewski.
“I can’t say I was trying to knock him out and wasn’t frustrated that I couldn’t finish him” said Majewski, who upped his record to 12-0 with 7 KO’s after the victory. “He was a much bigger fighter than me. He fought at light heavyweight in the past and I am naturally a middleweight”.
Majewski also made it known that his ring attire was no coincidence.
“Tomasz Adamek is a great fighter and I have followed him from the beginning. I study his tapes he is very smart, dynamic and has a good jab”.
Pietrantonio falls to 6-4 (5 KO’s) with the loss.
2008 National Golden Gloves Middleweight Champion Denis “Mommas Boy” Douglin of Morganville upped his record to 7-0 (3 KO’s) after decision late replacement Eddie Hunter from Seattle. Washington. Douglin used a consistent offensive attack to control virtually the entire fight, but was unable to deck his much bigger opponent. Scores were 60-54 twice and 59-54.
Douglin was originally scheduled to fight at junior middleweight against Latif Mundy, but scaled in at 162 lbs tonight to Hunter’s 167. He plans to fight at 154 in his next bout.
"I had to take what I can get since I needed to fight", Douglin said after the fight. "It was five months since I fought and I knew nothing about Hunter coming in. It honestly was a let down since I dropped my weight to 154 lbs, and had to fight a guy 167 lbs."
Cruiserweight Patrick Farrell of Jersey City scored an impressive four round decision against local rival Jon “The Fighting Marine” Schneider. Farrell decked the Contender Season 4 participant with a right hand in round one and three, but the Yonkers, NY native showed tremendous heart and never stopped moving forward. The scorecards read 40-33 and 40-34 twice.
"Once I caught him and knocked him down, I was trying to get him out of there, but I missed on some big shots", Farrell said after the fight. "I saw that Schneider said he didn't think the fight was going to go the distance so I said f**k this kid and I had to show him what I had"!.
Farrell moves to 5-0 (3 KO's) with the victory as Schneider dips to 7-5-1 (4 KO's).
Decorated amateur Ismayl Sillakh of the Ukraine improved to 10-0 (9 KO’s) after stopping tough Houston, TX native Larry Pryor inside of four rounds. Sillakh displayed why he is considered a notable prospect, tagging Pryor with hard jabs, straight right hands and body punches during the first three rounds. Pryor was decked hard twice via left hooks in round four and referee Steve Smoger stopped the one-sided contest following the second knockdown at 0:47. Pryor falls to 6-6 (4 KO’s) with the defeat.
2008 US Olympian, Sadam Ali of Brooklyn, NJ took on fellow Brooklynite Jason Thompson in the walk out bout. Ali, a storied amateur, was in zero danger throughout the contest, but had a major mishap in the dressing room. After arriving at the arena, Ali opened his bag and realized his boxing shoes were nowhere to be found. Luckily, Denis Douglin, who fought earlier in the night, offered a helping hand, or should we say shoes.
Ali was in control throughout the entire bout. He routinely landed powerful straight punches throughout the fight and was able to land then in rapid-fire combinations. Despite the constant barrage of powerful punches in a very one sided fight, Ali was unable knock his opponent down. That came as quite a shock to those still left in the arena. In the end of this welterweight contest, all three judges scored the bout 40-36 in favor of Ali.
Ali improves 5-0 with 2 KO’s, while the noticeably bigger Thompson, who somehow missed weight by 18 lbs for a fight in 09’, drops to 5-5-1 (4 KO’s).
