Adamek wins unanimous decision over Grant

Tomasz Adamek scored a lopsided, unanimous 12-round decision over Michael Grant Saturday night at the Prudential Center to position himself for a heavyweight title shot. But it wasn't the kind of performance that will scare either of the Klitschko brothers, IBF and WBO champion Wladimir or WBC champion Vitali.

Adamek (42-1, 27 KOs) was by far the busier fighter from start to finish, but Grant (46-4, 34 KOs) posed big problems with his 6-7, 261-pound dimensions compared with the 6-1, 217-pound Adamek, who suffered a cut in the eighth round. There was an element of George Foreman vs. Michael Moorer, but Grant waited until too late to start throwing his right hand.

The judges gave it to Adamek by scores of 118-110, 118-111 and 117-111. Adamek was a 116-112 winner on Newsday's card.

"If I had done in the fifth round what I did in the 12th round, it would have been a different story,'' Grant said. "Every time I tried to pull the trigger on that little mouse, he kept slipping. He can move.''

As for Adamek's power, Grant said, "He never stunned me. He never hit me as hard as I've been hit in my life.''

When Adamek fights at the Pru, the color scheme is overwhelmingly red and white with his legion of Polish fans waving that country's flag, carrying banners and singing Polish songs. But the 38-year-old Grant has seen it all and seemed cool and collected when he entered the ring to challenge Adamek for his IBF International and NABO heavyweight belts before a crowd of 10,872.

In the opening round, Grant barely used his jab, while Adamek concentrated on going to the body. Near the end of the round, Adamek landed a solid right to the head, and the two grappled after the bell and fell into a tangle on the ropes. Adamek seemed vulnerable while giving up six inches and 44 pounds to Grant, but he was able to work his way inside to score with left-right combinations in the second round.

Early in the third round, Grant landed his own combination that ended with a right hand that caused Adamek to stumble backward. The fourth was Adamek's best round in the early going. He landed two chopping right hands and then doubled up on the left to good effect. Adamek continued to work his left hand in the fifth round and simply outpunched Grant, who did connect with one solid right late. Adamek stayed busy in the sixth when Grant complained of a shot to the back of his head.

Grant began to move forward in the seventh, and then his jab opened a cut at the corner of Adamek's left eye early in the eighth round. It took a long time, but Grant finally began to show more aggression in the second half of the fight when he decided he could take Adamek's punches. Adamek was able to land frequently in the ninth, but the power shots were delivered by Grant, who continued firing after the bell.

With about 45 seconds left in the 10th round, Adamek walloped Grant with a hard left hook, and he kept pressing to get inside. Grant started the 11th round with two lead right hands that made you wonder where he'd been hiding them, but then he faded again as Adamek remained the busier puncher, landing a big right hand late.

Assured of going the distance, Grant let it all hang out in a wild 12th, chasing Adamek around the ring and banging right hands. But it was too little, too late.

Notes & quotes: On the undercard, Brooklyn's Sadam Ali (9-0, 5 KOs) stopped Costa Rican Lenin Arroyo (20-13-1, 4 KOs) at 2:46 of the fifth round with a left to the liver that dropped Arroyo to one knee.