Is boxing dying? Not in Europe, it isn’t, nor, anywhere, for that matter, when a fight is made that grabs the public’s interest. Such a fight takes place in Lodz on Saturday, billed as “Poland’s Fight of the Century”, when erratic Andrew Golota takes on Tomasz Adamek, who has relinquished his IBF cruiserweight title to test the heavyweight waters.

This fight has captured the public imagination in Poland, where the country’s leading network, Polsat, is expecting 10 million viewers in a programme that is due to last five hours. (The 15,000-capacity arena is sold out, and the promoters tell me that tickets are being sold on the black market.)

Golota turns 42 in three months and he’s boxed only twice in the past two years, but there is still a weird fascination about the hulking former contender.

People know that when Golota gets into the ring there is a good chance of something weird happening.

Golota’s career is littered with bizarre occurrences. There were the two low-blow DQs against Riddick Bowe in fights that Golota was winning, the meltdown against Michael Grant and the frozen-with-apprehension first-round loss against Lennox Lewis — and a similar blast-out in the 53-second disaster against Lamon Brewster.

Who can forget Golota quitting against Mike Tyson while trainer Al Certo frantically tried to push Golota’s gum shield into his mouth?

In his last fight, Golota suffered an arm injury in a first-round loss against Ray Austin.

Going back a bit, we had other oddities: Golota biting Samson Po’uha and blatantly butting Dannell Nicholson — and getting away with the offences.

Yet there have been nights when Golota has boxed sound, disciplined fights, such as when he drew with Chris Byrd and almost beat John Ruiz in title bouts that the big Polish fighter would have won with a bit of a break in the scoring — and, more recently, when he outboxed and outlasted the heavy handed but wild punching Mike Mollo.

Golota simply will not go away, and an upset win on Saturday would reignite his career.

I would have felt a lot better about Golota’s chances, though, had he not come in at a career-heaviest 256 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in. This is 19 pounds more than Golota weighed for the fight with Mollo, and there was a soft, slightly sagging look to his body at the weigh-in.

Adamek, 32, came in at his heaviest weight of 214.2 pounds and his physique looked undefined. However, Adamek didn’t look exactly ripped as a cruiserweight and appeared a bit soft in the body at the weigh-in for his last fight, against Johnathon Banks, a contest he won by knockout.

People think of Adamek as a give-and-take warrior, based on his two bruising wins over Paul Briggs and his gruelling victory over Steve Cunningham, but I think that on Saturday he will be relying on movement and speed, the way he did when he outclassed the dangerous O’Neil Bell.

Golota can box and punch, but he usually isn’t what you would call a pressure fighter. I see him as more of a standup boxer than an aggressor. Adamek might be able to pile up points by keeping things simple, getting in with his punches and moving out.

Of course, Golota is a big heavyweight fighting a boxer who started his career as a light-heavy. One big right hand from Golota could win the fight for him. He has 12 rounds in which to land such a punch, and although Adamek is tough he had to get off the floor to win his rematch with Briggs.

I think that Golota might be a bit sluggish at such a heavy weight, though. Adamek is likely to be much the more mobile man, and he has superior hand speed.

With Polish pride involved, one would expect Golota to show determination but his weight doesn’t indicate a Spartan training camp. I can see Adamek winning the early rounds, but the possibility of Golota connecting will keep the Polish fans captivated.

There is always the possibility that if Golota is losing he will do something crazy, although, to his credit, he hasn’t, to my knowledge, resorted to illegal methods since the second Bowe fight more than a decade ago. Golota could, of course, get discouraged if things are going badly. It is true that he fought with one eye swollen shut in the last several rounds against Mollo, and Golota was game in that fight, but he was in with a virtual novice who looked exhausted from about the fifth round.

Looking back at my notes, I’m reminded that Golota’s reactions looked slow and his punches seemed to be coming slowly in the win over Mollo. Golota was much the better boxer but he couldn’t put together the sequence of punches that would have taken a floundering Mollo out of the fight.

This fight is a calculated gamble for Adamek against someone so much bigger, but I think that he’s made the correct calculations. I’m looking for an Adamek win, but with Golota's weight and psychological frailties I'm not sure of the method — perhaps by late-rounds stoppage, with Golota being worn down by an accumulation of punches.