With a smile on his face, standing inside his familiar turf — the ring at the World Boxing and Fitness Center in downtown Jersey City – Tomasz Adamek declared last week that he was back and perhaps better than ever. He is preparing for his first fight since losing to Vitali Klitschko for the WBC world heavyweight title last September in his native Poland.
“I’ve already forgotten about the last fight with Klitschko,” said Adamek, the former Jersey City resident who is preparing for his return to the ring March 24 against Nagy Aguilera, dubbed “Dominican Dynamite,” at the Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn. The fight will be televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network.
“I lost on Saturday and on Monday, I came back to my family and my life in America,” Adamek said. “I was ready to get back to work. Sometimes, when you lose, you need time to grow.”
Adamek took some time away from boxing. He needed to clear his head after the lopsided fight, in which he didn’t come close to hurting the much-bigger Klitschko and fell in a 10th-round technical knockout.
While there was some initial talk that the 35-year-old Adamek might walk away from the boxing game, the reality of it was that the thought never entered his mind.
“I quickly came back to the gym and went back to work,” Adamek said. “Twice, I went to [trainer] Roger [Bloodworth]’s house [in Glen Carbon, Ill.] and worked on my technique more than anything. I needed to prepare to get back in the ring. I’m a mountain boy and I wasn’t about to quit. I needed to get back in the ring and knew I had to win tougher fights so I could get another chance. I can’t think about retiring. Not now. I still have to fight.”
Bloodworth, who has worked with Adamek now for almost three years, thinks that Adamek learned a lot from the loss and he’s ready to make his return to boxing.
“Tomasz has learned a lot from the Klitschko fight,” Bloodworth said. “I think we got in the ring with him too soon, but boxing is a business and the offer was good, so we had to take it. Had we waited, things might have been different. I think he’s learned a lot. He spent two to three weeks with me in Glen Carbon and it went well. He fell off the horse and he had to get back on it. I think a lot of what’s happened has been timing. Christmas took place and Tomasz had to be with his family. It was good for him to take the time off, because Klitschko was a rough fight. He got hurt and he didn’t fight well. It’s just one of those things. He didn’t do anything in that fight.”
Bloodworth doesn’t second-guess taking the title shot against Klitschko.
“I thought he was well prepared for that fight, but he lost,” Bloodworth said. “If there was anything we did wrong, it’s that we should have trained in Poland for the fight. It was tough going over there a week before the fight.”
But Bloodworth always knew that Adamek would eventually return.
“There was no thought about it,” Bloodworth said. “He was coming back. In his mind, this was the first time that Tomasz had lost and he got beat. He needed to come back and that’s why we have this fight. We’ll see where he is and he can answer those questions about how he is. From what I’ve seen, he looks great and wants another shot. Maybe it might take a year or so, but that’s what Tomasz wants.”
Bloodworth has worked on getting Adamek to be a little bigger. The lack of true heavyweight size hurt him against Klitschko.
“He’s changing his style a little and he’s much bigger,” Bloodworth said. “He’s now 227 (pounds) and we want him at 230. I knew it was going to take a while for him to grow into a heavyweight’s body. Now, he has the muscle and the strength. If he doesn’t get back into the ring now, he might stay out too long. We never forget the losses. We feel good about where he is.”
Adamek likes the fact that he’s been packing on the pounds.
“I’m bigger and stronger,” Adamek said. “It’s been a six-month break. I’ve been eating better. I like American steak and I’ve been eating a lot. My wife is happy, because I’m hungry again. I think the [added] 10 pounds has been a big help. It’s most important to be healthy. I am ready to put on a good show for the fans. I can’t wait to get into the ring.”
So after a six-month hiatus, Adamek is ready for his return.
“I’m a stronger man,” Adamek said. “I believe in God and God thinks I’m strong now. I am ready to fight. I need to win a couple fights to get a chance at the title again. I need practice. I was slow against Klitschko. I wasn’t the true Tomasz. I think it was a valuable lesson. I wasn’t ready for that fight. But now I feel bigger and stronger. I worked on my technique. We’ll see how good I am March 24. Every day, I feel like I’m a better fighter.”
And every day, Adamek will try to get back to the pinnacle, namely another shot at the heavyweight championship of the world. The road back begins in Brooklyn in two weeks.
Other local boxers
Another local professional boxer will also make his return to the ring. Jersey City’s Pat “Paddy Boy” Farrell, who has been away from boxing for almost two years, will make his return Saturday night – appropriately on St. Patrick’s Day – at Bally’s Park Place Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City as part of Union City attorney John Lynch’s Pound4Pound Promotions card.
Farrell, who was busy in his attempt to become a Jersey City firefighter, will take on Kalven Jenkins in a four-round cruiserweight bout.
Farrell has been out of the ring since enduring a six-round draw at the Prudential Center in Newark on July 16, 2010 against Newton Kidd. Farrell needed some time off and now he’s ready for his return.
Pound4Pound Productions’ 10-bout card will also feature Jersey City’s welterweight Jose Peralta Alejo, who is trained by Lynch’s brother, Pat, the trainer for the late Arturo Gatti, along with promising welterweight Vitaliy Demyanenko and light middleweight Glen Tapia of Passaic, who was trained by Jersey City native Mike Skowronski. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached via e-mail at OGSMAR@aol.com.