NEW YORK (AP) -Tomasz Adamek would have fit perfectly into the heavyweight division circa 1970, when the giants of the sport weren't exactly giants.
That's hardly the case these days.
The Polish-born, New Jersey-based Adamek weighed 214 1/2 pounds - and don't forget that half - when he made his first appearance as a heavyweight last fall, knocking out all 256 pounds of Andrew Golota before an adoring crowd in Lodz, Poland.
The cruiserweight champion weighed 220 1/2 pounds for his return to the ring Saturday night against Jason Estrada at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
That's still considered small for a modern heavyweight, especially when the division's kingpins, Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, both weighed over 240 for their most recent bouts.
``I'm always asked if I feel worthy to be in the heavyweight division, and my answer always is, 'Just watch me fight,''' Adamek said this week. ``I don't expect anybody to respect me because I was champion in two other weight classes, just enjoy what you see when I'm in the ring.
``I did not lose any strength as compared to being a light heavyweight or cruiserweight,'' he added. ``Fighting at my natural weight helped me be a better boxer - that's natural weight and power, zero loss of energy.''
Adamek (39-1, 27 KOs) decided to move up in weight seeking more lucrative paydays, after chances to fight Bernard Hopkins and others fell through. The relatively new cruiserweight division not only lacks marquee names, it also lacks the brand recognition of the heavyweights.
After all, that's the division once dominated by the likes of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman, all of whom fought at around 220 pounds in their prime.
What they lacked in size they made up for in speed and agility, one of the big reasons that fans were interested. But over the past two decades, the division ballooned to the point where 7-foot, 300-plus pound Nikolay Valuev claimed one of the four major titles.
Their plodding, cumbersome styles turned off even the most ardent fans.
Recently, several fighters are beginning to tilt the size of heavyweights back in the other direction. Another former cruiserweight champion, David Haye, lifted Valuev's WBA belt last fall, and Adamek is hopeful of his own title opportunity later this year.
``Tomasz is never afraid. He amazes me,'' said Kathy Duva of promoter Main Events. ``He goes into each fight calm and cool, and always confident that he will win. We all believe in him.''
While he's well known in Poland and has a huge fan base in New Jersey, Adamek isn't widely known elsewhere in the United States. Duva has been trying to entice HBO and Showtime to give him top billing, but for now he's forced to settle for fighting in his adopted hometown.
Not that it's a bad thing, considering the way he's drawing fans.
Main Events rearranged floor seating to squeeze in more ringside seats after they sold out, and on Friday decided to open additional sections of the Prudential Center, even though Estrada has never beaten a major opponent and is considered a steppingstone to bigger things.
``I understand that he has to say the things he's saying - about putting me on the canvas, talking about other fights after fighting me,'' Estrada said this week. ``He has to believe it, but believing and doing are two different things.''
Estrada (16-2, 4 KOs), of Providence, R.I., won't have an edge in experience or the hometown advantage, so perhaps his best hope of springing the upset is this: He'll outweigh Adamek by nearly 17 pounds.
Even though size isn't everything.
``Funny thing is when I was playing video games as a light heavyweight, I was always playing as Tomasz Adamek,'' Estrada said. ``But this is a different story, he's among big boys now, and it will be over his head to fight people like me.''
