Adamek ahead of the Szpilka fight: The ring will verify everything

- Tomek, there are only a few days left until the fight. You have already held the press conference in Krakow. How are you feeling?
Tomasz Adamek: I am healthy and in good shape. I am working hard on my conditioning to enter the ring one hundred percent prepared. I feel good. I am happy to be preparing for this fight in my hometown of Gilowice. Every day I can also count on my mother’s home-cooked meals (laughs). Preparations are going very well.

- One of the boxing websites published a video in which you say essentially just one sentence: “I’m fast”...
TA: What am I supposed to comment on? (laughs). You can say a lot before a fight, but that is just about building the atmosphere. Anything can happen in the ring, but nobody has ever won a fight with words alone. I repeat: the ring will verify everything.

- Does it bother you when people mock your faith and prayers?
TA: After every fight, I thank God for the victory. Before a bout, I also ask Him to make sure that nothing happens to me or my opponent. Boxing can be very dangerous, and we see examples of that from time to time. I am Catholic and I have never hidden it. If someone laughs at that, it is their concern. It is my life, and I live it the way I want to. At the press conference I said: Let Artur Szpilka pray that everything ends well on November 8.

- After your fight with Andrzej Gołota, you said that you no longer wanted to box any fellow countryman. So what made you change your mind and agree to fight Artur Szpilka?
TA: I did say that, but boxing is my job. I received a good offer, thought it over, and that is why we are talking today. It is a dangerous sport. I do not enter the ring for entertainment. This is my work, and when a good opportunity comes along, I accept the offer.

- For quite some time, statements from both of you have been appearing in the media. Artur spoke as if he wanted to provoke this fight...
TA: I have said before that it cannot be the case that everyone who wants a fight gets one immediately. You have to earn the right to a bout. All those media clashes... What am I supposed to comment on? You will see for yourselves what happens on November 8. I promise I will not let the fans down. I will enter the ring as a great warrior, and I will leave it as a warrior.

Interview by: Marta Jacukiewicz