CARL DILKS vs CHARLES ADAMU

Full marks to Carl Dilks for rolling the dice as he steps up in class to meet Charles Adamu in the Sky Sports main event from York Hall in east London on Friday. The question, though, is whether Dilks’s ambition exceeds his grasp.

I can see why Dilks would want to take the fight. The vacant Commonwealth super middleweight title is at stake. Dilks, 26, has lost only once in 13 bouts, and that was on a split decision in the Prizefighter light-heavyweight tournament in February. In his last fight, Dilks went 10 rounds for the first time when outpointing the limited but big-hearted Billy Boyle. The former British army soldier from Liverpool is six years younger than Adamu. He obviously feels he can win, and perhaps he can.

Adamu, though, is more seasoned and simply a better fighter than anyone Dilks has faced. Adamu boxed for Ghana in the Olympics. He is a former Commonwealth champion at 168 pounds and he has boxed in Britain before, outpointing the crafty and tricky Matthew Barney but losing on points to Carl Froch. His other defeats were also on the road — on points against world-class southpaws Vitali Tsypko and Otis Grant in Germany and Quebec respectively, while, in his last fight, Adamu was well-beaten on points by the promising Isaac Chilemba in South Africa.

The scoring suggests that Adamu was never in the fight against Chilemba — one judge gave every round to his younger opponent. This might indicate that Adamu is at the stage where his ability isn’t what it was, or maybe Chilemba is simply an outstanding young fighter. We just don’t know. Adamu hasn’t been very active lately (Friday’s fight will be only his fifth in four years), so he shouldn’t be burnt out.

In the fight with Froch it seems that Adamu was winning the contest until he got knocked down in the eighth round, after which the British boxer took over. That fight was five years ago, though, and Froch was relatively inexperienced as a professional.

From what I can gather, Adamu has a good jab and throws the right hand frequently, while clearly he is a durable sort.

Dilks is a capable boxer but he seemed to me to be struggling a bit when he was under pressure against Darren Stubbs in Prizefighter, although the fight could have gone either way. (Dilks was announced as the winner only to have the bad news broken to him that one of the judges’ scores had somehow been reversed and that Stubbs had won the fight.)

If anyone has a solid opinion on who will win this fight they are doing better than me. Dilks’s last five fights were at light-heavy, so he is coming down in weight and we don’t know how it will affect him. Dilks is younger and fresher, but Adamu is more experienced against a much higher level of opponent than those Dilks has faced. I think this is the sort of fight where the viewer will quickly have a sense of which way it is likely to go. I’ll guess that Dilks can win, but honestly I might as well flip a coin, that’s how undecided I am.