By Mark DiIonno
February 05, 2010, 5:11AM
Polish-born Adamek prepares for heavyweight bout in Newark Tomasz Adamek doesn’t walk through a crowd. He stops through it. Person by person. Autograph by autograph. Handshake or kiss by handshake or kiss.
At each stop, he smiles and puts his arm around the pretty girls, lip gloss aglow, or the neatly dressed ladies old enough to be his mother. He shakes hands with the balding, paunched middle-aged men or the skinny, awestruck boys, who both dream of being like him.
At each stop, there is a camera flash. From a fancy digital. A drugstore disposable. A cellphone. And there it is, forever. "The day I met Tomasz Adamek," someone will say.
Tomasz Adamek takes this all with humility. What else would you expect from a man whose idol is Karol Józef Wojtyła, the late Pope John Paul II?
Noah K. Murray/The Star LedgerPolish fighter Tomasz Adamek talks to boxing fan during press conference for his upcoming fight Saturday with Jason Estrada at Prudential Center in Newark.
He moves through the crowd with grace. "Dzienkuje," he says over and over. "Thank you," in Polish. He smiles, he nods, and every now and then, he puts a fist on somebody’s chin, if just for the camera. Because Adamek is fighter, a boxing legend in his home country.
Adamek now lives in relative anonymity in Jersey City, moving to America for better fight opportunities. While he may be unknown to most New Jersey sports fans, in the Polish neighborhoods of Garfield and Wallington and Passaic and Clifton and Bayonne and Jersey City, it is hard to find a deli or grocery or garage or hair salon that does not have a picture of the proprietor with Tomasz Adamek, or at least a signed poster of the champ.
"He never says no to anybody," said Andrew Cholewa of North Arlington. "This is why we love him. He is not embarrassed by his heritage. He embraces his people. He goes to all the Polish festivals and things like that. That’s why he is idolized by us."
"I love him. He is a very good man," said Ewa Plucinska of Carteret. "He is a good family man, this I know. And his celebrity, it brings our community together."
Adamek is a very good fighter, too. He’s won two world championships and has 39-1 record with 27 knockouts. Saturday night he moves up against Jason Estrada at Newark’s Prudential Center, where 10,000 people are expected. It will be his fourth fight here in two years, and the crowds have grown exponentially.
"I feel now, this is my home arena," Adamek said. "There are so many people who come and support me."
On fight night, most will be waving the red and white Flaga Polski, or wearing red shirts emblazoned with the Orzel Bialy (the White Eagle crest). Many will have come to New Jersey or the Greenpoint section in Brooklyn by way of Krakow, the anchor city of southern Poland, not far from the mountain village of Gilowice, where Adamek grew up. His nickname is "Goral" which means mountain man. And he is. He wears a size 14 shoe, and has hands to match. His angular face is not friendly. It says "prison guard." That is, until he smiles.
"He is one of us," said Leszek Czolpik, who like his neighbor Cholewa, brought his teenage son to meet Adamek at his final public appearance before the fight. It was called a press conference, but most of the pressing was done against Adamek by his fans at the Hudson Bread cafe in North Bergen.
"In Poland, Adamek’s fights draws the same attention as a European Cup soccer match," said to Joanna Brzychcy Maloney, a reporter for Nowy Dziennik (daily news.) "Here, he has brought the American Polish and new immigrants together."
Larry Hazzard, the former head of the New Jersey athletic commission who has spent 50 years in the sport and is going into its hall of fame, was in Poland in October when Adamek fought Andrew Golota, the former Polish heavyweight contender.
"It was crazy," Hazzard said. "It was as big as any fight anywhere; 20,000 people in the arena, 10 million watching on TV. He has the potential to be as big in Poland as Muhammad Ali was in the United States. That’s how people react to him. Especially if he wins the heavyweight championship."
If not, he will still be champion to many people, and his picture will stay up in all those places where he was not only big, but revered.
Noah K. Murray -The Star LedgerBoxers Jason Estrada and Tomasz Adamek, during press conference for their upcoming fight on Saturday at Prudential Center.
Previous coverage:
This is going to be one hell of a fight ,Who's going to win ?
-Adamek by TKO 7-8 round .
February 05, 2010, 5:11AM
Polish-born Adamek prepares for heavyweight bout in Newark Tomasz Adamek doesn’t walk through a crowd. He stops through it. Person by person. Autograph by autograph. Handshake or kiss by handshake or kiss.
At each stop, he smiles and puts his arm around the pretty girls, lip gloss aglow, or the neatly dressed ladies old enough to be his mother. He shakes hands with the balding, paunched middle-aged men or the skinny, awestruck boys, who both dream of being like him.
At each stop, there is a camera flash. From a fancy digital. A drugstore disposable. A cellphone. And there it is, forever. "The day I met Tomasz Adamek," someone will say.
Tomasz Adamek takes this all with humility. What else would you expect from a man whose idol is Karol Józef Wojtyła, the late Pope John Paul II?
He moves through the crowd with grace. "Dzienkuje," he says over and over. "Thank you," in Polish. He smiles, he nods, and every now and then, he puts a fist on somebody’s chin, if just for the camera. Because Adamek is fighter, a boxing legend in his home country.
Adamek now lives in relative anonymity in Jersey City, moving to America for better fight opportunities. While he may be unknown to most New Jersey sports fans, in the Polish neighborhoods of Garfield and Wallington and Passaic and Clifton and Bayonne and Jersey City, it is hard to find a deli or grocery or garage or hair salon that does not have a picture of the proprietor with Tomasz Adamek, or at least a signed poster of the champ.
"He never says no to anybody," said Andrew Cholewa of North Arlington. "This is why we love him. He is not embarrassed by his heritage. He embraces his people. He goes to all the Polish festivals and things like that. That’s why he is idolized by us."
"I love him. He is a very good man," said Ewa Plucinska of Carteret. "He is a good family man, this I know. And his celebrity, it brings our community together."
Adamek is a very good fighter, too. He’s won two world championships and has 39-1 record with 27 knockouts. Saturday night he moves up against Jason Estrada at Newark’s Prudential Center, where 10,000 people are expected. It will be his fourth fight here in two years, and the crowds have grown exponentially.
"I feel now, this is my home arena," Adamek said. "There are so many people who come and support me."
On fight night, most will be waving the red and white Flaga Polski, or wearing red shirts emblazoned with the Orzel Bialy (the White Eagle crest). Many will have come to New Jersey or the Greenpoint section in Brooklyn by way of Krakow, the anchor city of southern Poland, not far from the mountain village of Gilowice, where Adamek grew up. His nickname is "Goral" which means mountain man. And he is. He wears a size 14 shoe, and has hands to match. His angular face is not friendly. It says "prison guard." That is, until he smiles.
"He is one of us," said Leszek Czolpik, who like his neighbor Cholewa, brought his teenage son to meet Adamek at his final public appearance before the fight. It was called a press conference, but most of the pressing was done against Adamek by his fans at the Hudson Bread cafe in North Bergen.
"In Poland, Adamek’s fights draws the same attention as a European Cup soccer match," said to Joanna Brzychcy Maloney, a reporter for Nowy Dziennik (daily news.) "Here, he has brought the American Polish and new immigrants together."
Larry Hazzard, the former head of the New Jersey athletic commission who has spent 50 years in the sport and is going into its hall of fame, was in Poland in October when Adamek fought Andrew Golota, the former Polish heavyweight contender.
"It was crazy," Hazzard said. "It was as big as any fight anywhere; 20,000 people in the arena, 10 million watching on TV. He has the potential to be as big in Poland as Muhammad Ali was in the United States. That’s how people react to him. Especially if he wins the heavyweight championship."
If not, he will still be champion to many people, and his picture will stay up in all those places where he was not only big, but revered.
Previous coverage:
This is going to be one hell of a fight ,Who's going to win ?
-Adamek by TKO 7-8 round .
