Heavyweight Kevin McBride (35-9-1, 29 KOs) lost a unanimous decision to Tomasz Adamek (44-1, 28 KOs) last Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark.

The 37-year-old tried gainfully to find his Polish opponent over the course of the fight, but Adamek was too fast and elusive for McBride and picked him off at will over the course of the bout.

The vast majority of the 7,653 in attendance in the Prudential Center were Polish fans of Adamek, a former light heavyweight and cruiserweight world champion, but McBride had family present and he did have some supporters in the crowd.

All fans of McBride could rightly feel aggrieved that the Polish and U.S. national anthems were played before the main event, but there was no sign of the Irish anthem “Amhran na Bhfiann.”

McBride may have picked up on this and took the Tricolor off the flag bearer and walked it around the ring after making his entrance.

Once the fight started, it soon settled into a pattern of the 215-pound Adamek nipping in with combinations to the body and the head and then moving out of distance of the one-speed McBride, who slowly stalked his opponent around the ring.

The Irishman, who came into the fight weighing 285 pounds, tried to lure Adamek in so he could lean on him and rough him up, but referee Randy Neumann was quick to break up the mauling and thus scuppered McBride’s plan to make it a war on the inside.

Last week, McBride told the Irish Voice that he would do what he had to win, and over the course of the fight he tried to maul, wrestle, lean and push Adamek around.  On several occasions in the fight McBride stood on Adamek’s foot in an effort to off-balance him.

In the early rounds Adamek shows no signs that these unorthodox methods were having any affect. However, in the later rounds it began to unsettle him somewhat.

McBride was deducted a point in the seventh round for holding, but he was never able to capitalize on the rough house tactics by landing a major shot to test the Pole’s chin.

The Irishman sustained a lot of punishment in the fight, but he was always game and was never in danger of being stopped.

At the end of the bout, the judges scored the fight 120-107, 119-108, and 119-108 in Adamek’s favor.

At the press conference afterwards when asked if he was considering retirement, McBride said, “I’ll have to talk to my family and my wife and my kids. There is a good chance that I will, you know. I am a fighter, I am a warrior, but I probably will step down.

“I probably will say goodbye to the beautiful sport of boxing and try to be a good citizen and a good dad to my kids and be with them and my wife.”

In other news, Paul McCloskey (22-0, 12 KOs) faces the biggest test of his career this Saturday night when he challenges Amir Khan (24-1, 17 KOs) for the WBA light welterweight title at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester.

The Dungiven man is the underdog going into this one but will hope to shock the world by beating the 2004 Olympic silver medalist.  However, the fight has been dropped by Sky Box Office due to poor sales.

There are two other Irish fighters on the undercard. LA-based lightweight Jamie Kavanagh (5-0) takes on

Sid Razak (6-62) in a six-rounder on the undercard, and lightweight Andy Murray (23-0) takes on Graeme Higginson (13-8-1) in a contest scheduled for eight rounds.

Finally, Chicago-based light middleweight Henry Coyle (14-2) defeated William Prieto (5-5-1) by TKO in the sixth round of their fight at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammons Indiana.