By: Sean Crose
The 20-1-1 Vito Mielnicki faced the 19-0 Kamil Gardzielik Saturday night in his native New Jersey. Gardzielik, from Warsaw, was fighting for the first time on U.S. soil. The middleweight throwdown was scheduled for ten rounds. The first was essentially a feeling out process for both men. Mielnicki patiently worked his jab in the second while Gardzielik tried to position himself to land clean. Mielnicki looked sharp in the third, keeping his distance while landing well. Indeed, he put Gardzielik on the mat less than a minute into the round.
Gardzielik beat the count, and even managed to land an impressive uppercut on Mielnicki, but he simply wasn’t able to put his punches together. While he continued to break this man down in the fourth, Mielnicki also impressed with his defense. He may have been pressing the action, but he was also able to avoid Gardzielik’s punches. Gardzielik was able to land to the body in the fifth, but he simply wasn’t landing enough. Mielnicki walloped Gardzielik with his own thudding body shots in the sixth. Credit had to go to Gardzielik in the seventh. He may have been being dominated, but he was fighting hard for every second of the fight. Still, he was proving to be no match for Mielnicki.
Mielnicki seemed to be turning up the pressure in the eighth though Gardzielik managed to get through the round without taking too much damage. By the ninth, it was likely obvious to anyone that Mielnicki was simply a more skilled fighter that Gardzielik. Game though he was, Gardzielik just couldn’t make much happen. The tenth and final round was relatively close, but it was too little, too late for Gardzielik, who ended up losing to Mielnicki by unanimous decision. Mielnicki continues to make his way up the sport’s ladder.