IBF cruiserweight champion Tomas Adamek will take on former three-time heavyweight title challenger Andrew Golota on Saturday night at the Atlas Arena in Lodz, Poland, in a clash that ranks as perhaps the biggest in the history of their respective native country.A native of Zywiec, Poland, Adamek (38-1, 26 knockouts) has won seven consecutive fights, five of them by KO, since February 2007, when he lost his WBC light heavyweight (175 pounds) title to Chad Dawson.
The 32-year-old Adamek has since campaigned as a 200-pounder, winning the IBF crown in December by split-decision over Steve Cunningham, and defending it twice since.
A resident of Jersey City, N.J., Adamek's popularity has grown in nearby Newark, where his two most recent appearances -- including knockouts of Johnathon Banks and Bobby Gunn -- have drawn overflow crowds to the Prudential Center.
But in challenging Golota (41-7-1, 33 KOs), a native of Warsaw who lives in Chicago, Adamek is looking to attract lucrative paydays such as those against the winner of the Roy Jones-Bernard Hopkins matchup slated for early 2010, or even the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir or Vitali, or Russian Nicolay Valuev at heavyweight.
Golota, 41, weighed 242 pounds for his last fight in November, which was a first-round loss to Ray Austin that ended his three-fight winning streak.
Golota is most-known for his bizarre behavior in the ring, such as his two disqualification losses for low blows against Riddick Bowe, as well as his quitting in a third-round no-contest against Mike Tyson.
