GOŁOTA GETTING READY

Andrew Golota is entering his fourth week of training in Chicago ahead of his heavyweight clash with Tomasz Adamek on October 24 in Lodz, Poland. Golota suffered multiple tendon tears near his left bicep during the first round of his last fight against Ray Austin in November during a bout staged in Chengdu, China. He had surgery to correct the injury in May and says the recovery has gone well. "So far, so good with my elbow," Golota said.

"Right now, I have no special problems with it, just the usual pain when you hit the bag. This is a normal part of boxing."

Sparring began this week under the guidance of his longtime Windy City trainer Sam Colonna in a southwest Chicago gym. Golota currently weighs just over 250 pounds and plans to enter the ring somewhere around 245 pounds. He plans to rely on his power and ring experience when fighting his lighter, faster rival. He said: "It's personal for me. This is the fight that I cannot lose. He's a world champion; I will give him that, but a rookie when it comes to the heavyweights." Colonna, who started working with Golota after the Pole moved to Chicago in 1992, obviously doesn't want to go into detail about how he will prepare Golota to fight Adamek but did say this: "He will be surprised, for sure," Colonna said of Adamek. "I prepared Adamek for his first world championship fight against Paul Briggs. I know what Adamek likes to do in the ring, and I know what he is not as comfortable with. Andrew will be ready. He looked fabulous leading up to his last fight in China before suffering the injury in the first round of the fight with Ray Austin. He is already hitting harder than I expected him to at this point of training camp."

Tomasz Adamek is training at the Rocky Marciano Gym in Jersey City, N.J. training camp. The International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champion, and former World Boxing Council light heavyweight champion, will be making his first appearance at heavyweight. He will again be working under the guidance of legendary Polish amateur and professional trainer Andrzej Gmitruk, who recently joined the camp after arriving from his home in Poland.

Just as Colonna has trained Adamek, Gmitruk also formerly trained Golota. "Tomek will show everybody how good he is and how good he will be a as a heavyweight," Gmitruk said. "I have seen all of Golota's fights and also know how effective the smaller heavyweights, like Evander Holyfield, can be. Sometimes, heavyweight can give away even 35 to 45 pounds and still be effective. We will have two or three options of strategy to deploy depending on how Golota wants to fight. I never ask my fighters for one knockout punch, but in this case Tomek will have many opportunities for knockouts due to his superior hand speed and power."

Adamek said he plans to enter the ring around 215 pounds and has stressed how significant this fight is for him. "It's a very, very important fight for me," Adamek said. "It's my natural weight, I did not lose any speed as the tests are proving it. I gained power and will start sparring in couple of days. I expect to have least two heavyweights to prepare myself for Golota. Hopefully, one of them will be a good friend of Andrew's - Ray Austin, who defeated him in China."