Charles Martin fights on April 25; Tomasz Adamek resuming career – News

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By Jim Dower: Former IBF heavyweight world champion Charles Martin (23-1-1, 21 KOs) is ready to resume his boxing career after a year out of the ring when he faces 37-year-old journeyman Byron Polley (30-20-1, 13 KOs) next Tuesday on April 25 in a scheduled 10 round fight at the Fitzgerald’s Casino & Hotel in Tunica, Mississippi.

Martin, 30, hasn’t fought since being stopped in the 2nd round by Anthony Joshua on April 9 last year at the O2 Arena in London, England. The 6’5” southpaw Martin gave a poor account of himself by not letting his hands go in that fight before being stopped by Joshua in round 2. Martin was knocked down twice in round 2. Some boxing fans were angry, and felt that Martin didn’t even try and win the fight. Never the less, he looked overwhelmed from the very start.

The Martin vs. Polley fight will be taking plan on the undercard of the Mario Barrios vs. Nelson Lara card on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox Sports 1. It should be interesting to see what kind condition Charles Martin is in after being out of the ring for an entire year. The time off from action can’t have made Martin a better fighter, as he looked vulnerable even before he lost to Joshua.

The IBF has Martin ranked #14 with their organization despite him not having fought in an entire year. You would think that the IBF would drop Martin from their rankings after his loss to Joshua. We saw former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter dropped from the IBF’s top 15 after his narrow 12 round decision loss to Kell Brook in 2014, and that was a close fight. That wasn’t a wipeout like we saw with Martin’s loss to Joshua. The IBF still has Martin ranked in their top 15 for some reason.

Martin is going to have a hard time if he takes on some of the better contenders in the division. He’s too easy to hit, and his boxing skills need work. At 6’5”, Martin has the size and the power to give problems to a lot of the contenders in the division. We’ll have to see if Martin can come back from his loss to Joshua and his subsequent 1-year layoff.

Tomasz Adamek coming out of retirement

40-year-old former 2 division world champion Tomasz Adamek (50-5, 30 KOs) will be coming out of a 1-year retirement to face 41-year-old Solomon Haumono (24-3-2, 21 KOs) on June 24 in a 12 round fight at the Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland. Adamek hasn’t fought since being stopped in the 10th round on April 2 last year by Eric Molina in Krakow, Poland. Adamek was well ahead on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage. It looked like Adamek got a little careless because it was so easy for him up until the 10th round. Molina wasn’t throwing punches, and he was fighting much like he did in his recent loss to Anthony Joshua by not letting his hands go. Molina came alive suddenly in the 10th and knocked Adamek out with a couple of big right hands. At the time the fight was stopped, Adamek was leading by the scores 88-83, 88-83 and 88-83.

It’s unclear what Adamek’s goal is with him coming out of retirement. If Adamek wants to fight for a world title against someone like IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, then he’s going to probably need to take it slow and be careful in the type of fighters he faces. As we saw in Adamek’s loss to Eric Molina, he can’t be counted on to beat the heavyweight contenders that have some pop in their punches. However, Adamek is probably still good enough to beat some of the fringe contenders in the top 15. If he can win enough fights to get a top 5 ranking, Adamek might get lucky and get a title shot against Joshua in a year or two down the road. Adamek just needs to start winning again, and be selective in the opposition he faces. Adamek was very effective when he fought at light heavyweight and cruiserweight. He moved up in weight to accomplish bigger and better things. The money was obviously better at heavyweight, but Adamek didn’t have the size to succeed at in this weight class like he had in the other divisions he fought in.

Adamek fought for a world heavyweight title six years ago against then WBC champion Vitali Klitschko in September 2011. Adamek lost that fight by a 10th round knockout. Things were looking good for Adamek after that fight with him winning five consecutive fights against the likes of Eddie Chambers, Nagy Aguilera, Travis Walkers, Steve Cunningham and Dominick Guinn. Things turned sour for Adamek’s boxing career in 2014 when he lost to Vyacheslav Glazkov and Artur Szpilka in back to back fights. Both defeats decision losses. Adamek beat Przemyslaw Saleta by a 5th round stoppage in September 2015.

Haumono last fought on July 21 last year in getting stopped by the unbeaten Joseph Parker by a 4th round knockout in New Zealand.

Fighting on the Adamek-Haumono card will be former WBO cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Glowacki (26-1, 16 KOs) facing an opponent still to be determined in a 10 round fight. Glowacki, 30, last fought on September 17 in losing to Oleksandr Usyk by a 12 round unanimous decision in Gdansk, Poland. Glowacki lost his WBO cruiserweight title in that fight. That’ll be 9 months since Glowacki last fought. Hopefully, Glowacki can start getting busy with his boxing career, because he’s much too young for him to be letting long periods of time go by in between each fight. Also on the Adamek vs. Haumono card will be cruiserweight Mateusz Masternak (38-4, 26 KOs) facing 32-year-old Ukrainian Ismayl Sillah (25-3, 19 KOs) in a 10 round fight. Sillah was knocked out in the 2nd round by Sergey Kovalev in November 2013 Sillah was also stopped by Denis Grachev in the 8th round in April 2012, and most recently, he was knocked out in the 3rd round by Maksim Vlasov in June of last year. Sillah has won his last 2 fights against Brad Austin and Andrei Kniazev.