By Thomas Gerbasi
Adam Kownacki doesn’t have time to be sentimental or to reminisce. Not now. Not for a while.
The Polish heavyweight contender has a fight to think about, the biggest one of his career against former world title challenger Chris Arreola. The August 3 bout is taking place at Barclays Center in his adopted hometown of Brooklyn, and it’s the main event.
That’s usually a signal for a fighter to take in all the extras – selfies in front of the building, photos of the marquee with his face on it, and just celebrating the moment, a time to realize that he made it.
Kownacki’s not that guy.
“I’m playing it cool,” he said. “I’ve got to get ready for the fight. That’s key. As we saw on Saturday, even though (Manny) Pacquiao was 40 years old, he still put on a helluva good performance (against Keith Thurman). So age is just a number. I know Arreola will be very well prepared and I can’t look past him. So I’ve got to make sure I’m focused on the fight.”
It’s a smart choice for Kownacki, one made even more impressive considering where he came from. This isn’t about coming to the United States from Poland at the age of seven or even coming back from an injury-induced layoff of nearly three years. It’s about where he was just four years ago, in the same Barclays Center building he will headline a week from Saturday.
Set to face Ytalo Perea on the Amir Khan-Chris Algieri undercard in May 2015, Kownacki was 9-0, gloved up and ready to go as he watched fight after fight go down. Heather Hardy, Marcus Browne and Javier Fortuna all scored decision victories as Kownacki waited. He was the swing bout, and with no quick finishes, his die was cast. He was going to fight after Khan decisioned Algieri. Again, it didn’t faze him.
“You just gotta stay focused,” he said. “It’s a big opportunity to be a swing bout, too, because if there’s a knockout, you get some national TV time. So I was prepared for it, but it also comes with a downside of being gloved up and waiting to maybe go on after the main event, which is what happened. But it’s all a learning experience and it was good. It’s part of the game. I came up in Gleason’s Gym, where you heard those stories all the time and I was able to cope with it better because I heard all the trainers talking about it. So I knew it was a possibility.”
That’s not the best part of the story, though. The best part is that as Kownacki pounded out a decision of his own over Perea, a whole section of fans clad in red shirts remained in the arena to cheer him on. Kownacki estimates that 150-200 people were there for him tonight, and his following has only gotten bigger since then.
“The growth is amazing and it shows you that if you go one step at a time, even though you don’t get everything at once, if you continue growing and continue living in your community and giving back to it, you will accomplish what you want to accomplish. It motivates me to see how far I’ve come and to continue growing and getting better.”
From the walkout bout to the main event in the space of seven fights, with the Arreola bout being his eighth in Barclays. If that doesn’t make a fighter want to take selfies in front of the building, what will? But perhaps the greatest gift Kownacki has given himself is that of not getting too high or too low in a sport of extremes.
That may not have been the case if his career kept moving during his layoff. Before he broke his hand and then tore his bicep, he was four fights into the pro game and projected as the next big thing to come out of New York City.
“I remember being 4-0 with four knockouts,” he said. “I was supposed to fight on the Tomasz Adamek-Michael Grant undercard and everybody was a big fan. I was the young, up and coming fighter, and it was supposed to be my showcase at Prudential Center. Two weeks before the fight, I broke my hand and everybody disappeared. Nobody cared, nobody called to see how I was doing. Everybody’s there when everything goes well, but once you slip, it’s over. Nobody really cares. That stuck with me very strongly and I know who’s there because of me and not because of boxing.”
From there, Kownacki learned to keep his circle small, and it’s served him well. He’s 19-0 with 15 knockouts, closing in on a world title shot, and yeah, everybody loves him now. But the 30-year-old won’t get fooled again.
“My family, my trainers and my team, they keep me grounded,” he said. “Every time I get a little bit snotty or out of touch, they say, ‘Adam, remember, this can go away any day.’ So I make sure I stay focused. Everything is getting bigger. A lot more people want to do interviews and promotional stuff and they always talk about people coming out of the woodwork, and it’s happening. Luckily, I have my family with me from Day One, and they look out for me.”
Also looking out for him are the red and white t-shirt wearing residents of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
“I always try to be there for them,” he said of the people in the neighborhood where he was raised. “I grew up there and that’s where it all starts, the community where you live, where you grew up. People always want to help, so if you stick around and do the right thing by the people, they’ll give back and you have to pass it on. Be a good human being, help out and people are gonna help you.”
Those people will pack Barclays Center and try to do their best to will their man to victory against Arreola, the veteran brawler attempting to make one last run at glory at 38 years old. “The Nightmare” is 2-0 since a 2016 loss to Deontay Wilder, and while he can still be dangerous, his style is also perfect for Kownacki, who won’t have to look for him on fight night.
“I’m very excited,” Kownacki said of the fight. “I grew up watching him and I think he’s still one of the biggest names in heavyweight division. He’s been in with everybody and he always puts on a good fight, so he’s the perfect opponent. He may be a little bit past his prime, but you can’t take anything from him and he’s got a lot of fight left in him. On paper, it’s the perfect fight. Now it’s in my hands to do what I gotta do, which is get a knockout and put on a great performance.”
If he does, then he might take everything in, but only for a little while, because he’s got a big day coming at the end of August when he and his wife welcome their first child. And dad is already beaming.
“That’s extra motivation,” said Kownacki. “The timing is perfect; I get to relax and recover and then it’s on to parenthood. Another journey, another chapter in my life, and I can’t wait.”
