Kownacki’s 2nd shot
‘Babyface’ seeks redemption vs. Helenius
When we were kids, we always dreamed of hitting that walk-off homer in the seventh game of the World Series or draining the game-winning buzzer beater in an NBA Finals.
We never dreamt of striking out, air balling the game-winner, or having a referee stop your most important fight.
Melville’s Adam “Babyface” Kownacki, experienced that humbling experience on March 7, 2020, at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in front of a rabid pro-Polish crowd. He was in the main event versus Robert “The Nordic Nightmare” Helenius. The winner was to meet WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury.
“It sucked,” he says 18 months later, as he prepares for the rematch against Helenius, Oct. 9 at the T-Mobile Arena, home of the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights, on the undercard of Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder III.
The fight was originally scheduled for July 24 before Fury came down with the coronavirus.
As Kownacki said after the loss, “He did to me what I was supposed to do to him.”
After winning two of the first three rounds and hurting Helenius, Kownacki got caught, went down, got battered and referee David Fields stopped the contest in the fourth round.
“I was too eager to knock him out,” says Kownacki taking a break from training for the rematch. “I was reckless and in heavyweight boxing one shot changes everything and he put me on my ass. My fault.”
When a fighter loses a fight, he usually looks to blame everyone this side of his mama and changes everyone and everything around him. When Wilder lost his title via seventh-round stoppage to Fury in their rematch in 2020, he fired trainer Mark Breland, a former Olympic gold medalist and two-time welterweight champ.
Afterwards, Wilder stated that Breland had spiked his water bottle among other charges, but it wasn’t Breland who made him wear a
ridiculous 40-pound suit of armor into the ring.
Kownacki changed nothing. He still trains at the same Bellmore Kickboxing MMA Gym, and he kept his trainers Keith Trimble and Chris Carson, and learned from his mistakes.
“You have to stay focused and keep consistent,” says Kownacki, “and don’t get off the road. You don’t know when opportunity may come knocking.”
That opportunity came from the mystery man of boxing: Al Haymon.
“He called a couple of times after I lost to say these things happen,” recalls Kownacki. Haymon, the head of Premiere Boxing Champions (PBC) who never speaks with the press, could have told him see you later, especially when the fight was broadcast live on Fox. The call meant the world to Kownacki (20-1; 15 KOs).
“Boxing is very cruel, but life changing, and it’s great to know that Al has my back,” declares Kownacki.
And just as one punch can change everything, so can one phone call. Here he is fighting the rematch with the six-foot-six Helenius (30-3; 19
KOs).
The Fury-Wilder III pay-perview card is supported by two heavyweight clashes besides Kownacki-Helenius. Unbeaten sluggers Efe Ajagba (15-0; 12 KOs) and Frank “The Cuban Flash” Sanchez (18-0; 13 KOs) meet in a 10 rounder and Jared “The Real Big Baby” Anderson (9-0; 9 KOs) opens the telecast with an eight-round contest versus Russian Vladimir Tereshkin (22-0-1; 12 KOs).
With this second shot to make a name for himself in Las Vegas, the new Mecca of boxing, Kownacki is working on not making the same glaring mistakes again.
Instead of pressuring Helenius with smart punches, he moved forward throwing bombs, face-first.
“I was a little too excited,” he states. “I love to fight, but I have to be more careful. I’m working on jabbing and double jabbing when I go forward.
“I was winning. I had him … have to stay composed and go to the body.”
For the two-time Daily News Golden Gloves champ born in Lomza, Poland and raised in
Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the loss was a stunner. He felt right at home at Barclays Center, having fought there nine times prior to fighting Helenius. Not only did he get stopped in his home arena, but his friends and family saw it in person or on live TV.
Still, his family got the six-footthree bruiser through the depression of losing.
“The loss sucked, then covid hit, and everything was shut down,” he notes, adding, “but I got to spend quality time with my wife Justyna and my newborn son Kaz (now 22 months). My wife helped me through it and Kaz didn’t know what was going on, but I got to see his first steps a month after the loss. Got to hear him say his first word, ‘Tata.’ In Polish it means Dad.
“My wife said he said ‘Mama’ first, but I have ‘Tata’ on video. I don’t think she was very happy.”
And with that you hear that big laugh that is Kownacki.
He’s entertaining to watch in the ring. Even though he is a heavyweight and can hit, he loves to maul his opponents with punches in bunches.
When he battled Chris Arreola at Barclays Center in August 2019, the two of them broke the CompuBox record for most punches thrown (2,172) and most punches landed (667) in a heavyweight contest.
But along with his crowd-pleasing, aggressive tactics comes the chance of being wide open for the left hook, courtesy of the hard-hitting Helenius.
“One shot changes everything,” repeats Kownacki.
He also sees a plan after boxing. At 32 years of age, he can’t fight forever. That’s where his out of the ring smarts kick in.
“I brought a real estate investment … a lodge in upstate New York with nine rooms,” he says. “It’s important to spend time with the family.
“My mom and dad worked hard but had the time to take me and my two brothers on mini vacations. I’m Polish and Catholic and I have a lot of cousins … a lot of cousins and we were always together for Easter and Christmas.”
Can they all fit in a nine-room lodge?
“I don’t know,” he says, adding that signature laugh.
He’s doing his training away from his family because boxing is serious business, and you don’t need any distractions.
“I miss my wife and son,” he declares without the laugh, but at least he’s fighting on a big card on pay-per-view. Excited?
“The truth? It’s great I guess but I love being the main event,” he says with a chuckle. “I love fighting in Brooklyn with the white and red Polish flags coming out,” he says, “but Las Vegas is the capital of boxing.”
And if you’re lucky enough to become the heavyweight champ of the world, could we see a title defense in Brooklyn?
“One hundred percent!” he exclaims. “One win and I’m back in title contention.”
But first things first, before there is any heavyweight title talk, Kownacki must exorcise his Nordic Nightmare. In boxing, you don’t get many chances to say “My fault” after another loss to the same demon.