By Tom Donelson

Adamek leads yet another European invasion!

Tomasz Adamek entered the final stanza knowing that his title was on the line. In the first round, he hit the canvas from a Paul Briggs left hook and throughout the fight, Briggs' right hand found a home upon Adamek face. 

There was a definitely back and forth flow in many of the rounds.  Adamek used his quick hands to unleash his combinations, but Briggs' punches had more impact and Briggs was actually the more accurate puncher despite being outpunched. 

This was a fight with many close rounds and Adamek came away with a split decision by the smallest of margins.  In the final round, both Adamek and Briggs exchanged punches with Adamek gaining the edge as he found just enough energy to pull out the last round.  Two of the judges gave Adamek the advantages in many of the close rounds but no one really complained about the decision. Instead, they were treated to what was the best fight of the weekend, and of the best of the entire year.

The light heavyweight division is becoming more competitive and Adamek is just one good fighter fighting for his claim to be the best.  Hungarian fighter Zsolt Erdei is the WBO champion and like Adamek, undefeated.  Clinton Woods finally exercised a few ghosts when he took a close bout from Glen Johnson in a defense of his IBF title.  And Frenchman Fabrice Tiozzo holds the WBA light heavyweight title. Just in case, you have missed the pattern; all of these champions are European. 

With Roy Jones, Jr. on the downside of his career and Antonio Tarver recovering from a whipping at the hands of Bernard Hopkins, Europeans have simply taken over the top slots of the division just as they had done in the Heavyweight division. 

The major American challenger is Chad Dawson, who goes to Europe to challenge the once defeated Croatian fighter Stipe Drews.  Adamek showed heart and excellent boxing skills in defending his title against the rugged Paul Briggs, who showed himself a worthy challenger.

Valuev Shows Up

No one will confuse Nikolai Valuev with one of the all time greats. He is big, plodding Heavyweight with slow hands but he does have two important features. He appears to be able to take a punch and he has endurance.  Monte Barrett hit Valuev with wild rights and sharp heft hooks, but nothing that Barrett did appear to faze him.  The critics will point out that his punches appear to lack punch for a man his size and his hands speed will not remind us of Ali.

After pounding and mauling Barrett for eleven rounds, Valuev has shown that he can beat second tier heavyweights.  Over the past year, He has beaten Larry Donald and John Ruiz in two close bouts, and smacked Owen "What the Heck" Beck around for three rounds.  Valuev has yet to challenge an elite heavyweight, but we now know he can at least beat top twenty heavyweights.

Casamayor finally does it.

For the past decade, Joel Casamayor has always fallen short.  He never got a chance to fight Floyd Mayweather and lost close bouts to Arcelino Freitas, Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo.  One of the better junior lightweight/lightweight fighters since he left Cuba, he always seemed to fall short in the big bouts.  These losses were close decisions that could have easily gone the other way. It just seemed that Casamayor fell short by inches. Inches away from true greatness.

A draw against Kid Diamond last year showed a boxer on the downside of his career as his speed appeared to be waning.  This past Saturday, he finally put some of those ghosts back in the closet as he defeated Corrales for the second time in three meetings.  Yes, it was close and it was a split decision but this time, he got the benefit of the doubt and this was after Corrales came into the fight closer to a welterweight than a lightweight. 

For one night, Casamayor fought, as if he was 25-years-old and not 35. Now he is the official king of the lightweights and looking for big paydays as his age starts to become a factor.