Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn is planning on matching American heavyweight Jarrrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller (21-0-1, 18 KOs) against past his best 41-year-old Tomasz Adam (53-5, 31 KOs) on his October 6 DAZN card in Chicago, Illinois, according to ESPN. The terms for the Miller vs. Adamek fight have been agreed on, says Dan Rafael.
The 300+ pound Miller will likely outweigh the 225 pound Adamek by 75 lbs. at the very least. This is going to be a terrible size mismatch. To have a fighting chance against a guy Miller’s size, one would need to weight at least in the 240s unless your name is Deontay Wilder. At 210 pounds, Wilder would be a nightmare for the slow moving Miller. Don’t hold your breath waiting for Hearn to match Miller up against Wilder though, as he’s holding him in reserve for the Joshua fight.
The Miller-Adamek fight still isn’t finalized, so there’s always the chance that Hearn could find a better opponent for ‘Big Baby’ once he catches the drift from boxing fans that they’re not interested in seeing this match. Hearn needs to put together appealing fights to get U.S fans to subscribe to DAZN. On paper, Miller vs. Adamek is a terrible mismatch, and not one that will appeal to many fans. There are some good fighters in the heavyweight division that would be perfect for Miller to fight, but Adamek is not seen as one of them. It might be better for Hearn to make an offer to one of these heavyweights to see if they would be interested in facing Miller on October 6:
– Adam Kownacki
– Luis Ortiz
– Bermane Stiverne
– Dereck Chisora
– Carlos Takam
– Kubrat Pulev
– Agit Kabayel
– Zhilei Zhang
– Bryant Jennings
– Johann Duhaupas
– Guillermo Jones
– Charles Martin
– Dominic Breazeale
With Hearn’s Matchroom money, he should be able to lure at least one of those guys to accept the fight against Miller. If Hearn is looking for a fighter to attract Polish boxing fans in Chicago, then Kownacki would be perfect. However, that’s a fight that Miller could lose, as Kownacki has heavy hands and he’s very dangerous. Miller might lose to Kownacki, which I suppose is reason enough for Hearn to exclude him from the running for Big Baby’s October 6 fight. I think this is all about showcasing Miller’s skills by putting him in with a guy that he can absolutely beat in 41-year-old Adamek.
If this is the kind of opposition that Eddie Hearn is going to be matching Miller up against in his DAZN cards, then it’s difficult to imagine him being able to attract fans to subscribe to his $10 per month subscription service.
Miller’s October 6 fight could be his last before he challenges IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in 2019.
This is a bad look for Miller in fighting Adamek. The Brooklyn born Miller has been calling out Anthony Joshua, and here he is fighting an arguably past his best Adamek on October 6 instead. 2016 Olympic Silver medalist Joe Joyce called Miller out recently, but there was no interest from the American’s part in facing him.
In terms of how much Adamek has left in the tank at age 41, he looks like he’s nowhere near the fighter he was back in 2007. The speed is gone. Adamek’s punching power has never been formidable at the heavyweight level since he moved up from cruiserweight in 2009.
The Poland born former two division world champion Adamek has a large following of Polish boxing fans in Chicago. By Hearn matching the 6’4” Miller against Adamek on October 6 in his DAZN card in Chicago, he can potentially help sell tickets to the venue. At the same time, the much younger and bigger 300 pound Miller will likely look impressive in beating the older and smaller Adamek. This fight would be what is referred to as a showcase fight designed to make Miller look good, and likely to help increase interest among U.S fans for his DAZN cards in the U.S. Hearn wants to increase subscriptions from American fans in his DAZN streaming service. The best way for him to do that is to setup fights between recognizable fighters like ‘Big Baby’ Miller and Adamek.
Miller is currently ranked #3 IBF, #3 WBA and #3 WBC. Adamek isn’t rated in the top 15 by any of the four sanctioning bodies, although that could change once Hearn makes the news announcement of the Miller-Adamek fight.
Adamek hasn’t had much success with his career at the heavyweight level since 2013. The last year in which Adamek fought at a high level was back in 2012, when he beat Nagy Aguilera, Eddie Chambers, Travis Waker and Steve Cunningham. In 2014, Adamek lost to Vyacheslav Glazkov and Artur Szpilka. Two years later, Adamek was stopped in the 10th round by former two time heavyweight world title challenger Eric Molina in 2016. Since that loss, Adamek has won his last three fights in beating Solomon Haumono, Fred Kassi and Joey Abell. Those are all journeyman level fighters. In 2015, Adamek was heavily criticized for fighting then 47-year-old Przemyslaw Saleta, who had only fought once in the last eight years of his career. The last win for Adamek against a solid heavyweight came in 2012 against Steve Cunningham. Six years have passed since then for Adamek, and he’s beaten only journeyman during that time.
For a lot of boxing fans, they’ll likely be surprised at seeing Miller fight Adamek, because the Polish fighter has largely been forgotten since 2012. Adamek has done very little in the last six years for him to receive attention by the U.S casual and hardcore boxing fans. Obviously the old timer U.S fans will remember Adamek from 2012 and earlier, but not the newer fans.
Adamek fought former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitshko in 2011, but was soundly beaten by a 10th round knockout. Adamek was too short, weak and limited to give Vitali much of a fight.
In 2005, Adamek beat Paul Briggs by a 12 round majority decision to capture the vacant World Boxing Council light heavyweight title. Adamek successfully defended his WBC title twice before losing it to a prime Chad Dawson by a 12 round unanimous decision on February 3, 2007. In June 2007, Adamek defeated Luis Andres Pineda by a 7th round knockout to capture the vacant International Boxing Organization cruiserweight title. In December 2008, Adamek defeated Steve Cunningham for the first time in winning the IBF World cruiserweight title.
At the heavyweight level, Adamek has had limited success, beating these fighters: Kevin McBride, Steve Cunningham, Vinny Maddalone, Eddie Chambers, Dominic Guinn, Nagy Aguilera, Michael Grant, Chris Arreola, Jason Estrada, Andrew Golota, Fred Kassi, Joey Abell, Solomon Haumon and Przemyslaw Saleta.
Perhaps Hearn’s decision to match Miller against the over-the-hill Adamek won’t work out as badly as some boxing fans think it will. In Hearn’s last Matchroom card on July 28, Dereck Chisora pulled off a big upset win in stopping former heavyweight world title challenger Carlos Takam, and Dillian Whyte edged former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker by a controversial 12 round decision at the O2 Arena in London, England. Domestic level heavyweight David Allen destroyed Nick Webb in the 4th round in another big upset on the card. In terms of excitement, it was a great card for Hearn on Sky Box Office. However, the fight card was not seen by U.S boxing fans, as the DAZN service still hadn’t started.