NEW YORK - As much as the nationally-televised audience on FOX will be tuning in to “PBC Fight Night” on Saturday to see Keith Thurman back in the ring, another boxer on the card might just steal their hearts.
Adam Kownacki will bring his brawling, thumping style back to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where he’ll face Gerald Washington in heavyweight action.
Kownacki’s smash-mouth style isn’t pretty, but boy is it crowd-pleasing. He’s going to eat his fair share of punches, but he’s going to keep moving forward and throwing and landing more shots of his own — each equipped with a thud. At least that’s what the Polish fighter has been able to do effectively through 18 pro bouts, touting an 18-0 record with 14 KOs, as he continues to climb up the heavyweight ranks and build up his profile simultaneously.
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His last fight at Barclays Center —a unanimous decision over Charles Martin on Showtime in September — had hundreds of raucous Polish fight fans in attendance cheering him on, giving him as frenzied of a response, if not greater, than Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia got in the main event. He’s expecting even more of a fervent show of support Saturday night when he takes on Washington.
“Polish people have my back since day one, since amateur days they’ve come out to support me and it’s getting bigger and bigger with every fight,” Kownacki told Sporting News before his media workout at Gleason’s Gym on Wednesday. “It’s amazing and I hope this fight will be around 2,000 people supporting me.”
If there’s one place that Kownacki reps as much as Poland, it’s Brooklyn. His family emigrated from Lomza, Poland to the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn when he was just seven-years-old, with his father working the night shift at a local bakery and his mom working in the hotel industry.
“Luckily, I moved to Greenpoint, which had a big Polish community at the time, so it was much easier to adapt, but English was a second language, so it was hard,” Kownacki said. “My dad worked nights, he slept during the day, so we really didn’t get to spend time with him because he was at work. So, it wasn’t easy, but we managed. Eventually, he did construction — a little better paying job — so, we managed.”
He added: “I was always a little chubby growing up, so I got bullied a little bit."
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Kownacki tipped the scales at just over 263 pounds during the weigh-in for his fight against Martin. When he and Martin exchanged heated words after the weigh-in, Kownacki brushed them off saying, “I’m from Brooklyn, man, so I ain’t scared of that s—.”
The next night, he proceeded to pummel Martin, taking a fair share of punches, but throwing and landing the more devastating shots en route to yet another victory. With Kownacki, absent is a chiseled six-pack like you might see on other heavyweights. But present is a hard-hitting fighting spirit that goes for broke with each performance.
“Boxing is a skill,” Kownacki told a pool of reporters following his media workout, shrugging off questions about his physique, “not a bodybuilding contest.”
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Through boxing, Kownacki was able to purchase a home for he, his wife and parents on Long Island, New York roughly four years ago. Furthering his ascension up the ranks has him thinking about purchasing his parents a home of their own. And there's another goal — with Poland and Brooklyn on his mind.
“That’s my ultimate goal. That’s what I think about every day — becoming Polish-American heavyweight champ of the world,” he told Sporting News with a grin on his face. “That’s the bar I set for myself and I plan on accomplishing that title.”
