Polish Pugilist Dominates in New Jersey

IBF International Heavyweight champion Tomasz “Granite Chin” Adamek successfully defended his crown versus Jason Estrada by unanimous decision Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

Adamek (40-1, 27 KOs), who won his title when he defeated Andrew Golota (41-8-1-1, 33 KOs) by fifth round TKO in October, is an absolute icon in his native country of Poland.

The audience in the “Garden State” was mainly comprised of ardent Adamek supporters who waved Polish flags and cheered wildly throughout the 12 round bout.

Estrada (16-3, 4 KOs), a product of Providence who outweighed Adamek by nearly 17 pounds, claimed the judges scoring was bogus.

“If everyone in this room were completely honest with themselves you would all admit that I got robbed. I mean I got played. I might as well have had a gun pointed to my head,” said Estrada, 29, the winner of the gold medal at the Pan American games in 2003.

“At best I give Adamek three of the 12 rounds. I seriously think the last judge doesn’t need to judge anymore.”

Adamek, a former IBF and IBO cruiserweight champion who currently resides in New Jersey, applauded Estrada for his valiant performance.

“It was the best Jason Estrada I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Adamek, 33, of Estrada, who has never been knocked down to the canvas.

“He was 50 percent better today, than when he fought a top three heavyweight like Aleksander Powietkin. Quick with a good defense and a very hard head. It was extremely difficult to locate precise punches, because of his defense.”

Adamek revealed that he was chastised by his trainer for trying to brawl, instead of box, the challenger.

“My trainer, Andrzej Gmitruk, wanted me to be more boxer than puncher, was screaming at me in the corner,” said Adamek.

“But how can I fight differently when I have 10,000 of my red and white fans screaming for me to do just that? They pay good money to see entertaining fight, not some boring, slow guys throwing 10 punches a round.”

Mike Cardello from Quincy was pleased that Adamek continued to force the action despite his obvious points advantage on the scorecards.

“It probably wasn’t the smartest thing from a boxing standpoint,” said Cardello, 28, who watched the fight on YouTube. “But, as a fan, you love to see a guy who fights his hardest the entire time.”

At 33, Adamek is not a youthful scrapper with a slew of years remaining in the ring.

However, Adamek does possess a tremendous ability to resist punches and, coupled with his “Granite Chin,” he could trump virtually any fighter on a given evening.

With a current six fight winning streak, Adamek shouldn’t “fight differently” henceforth.