Adam Kownacki

Early life Kownacki was born in Łomża, Poland and grew up in Konarzyce. When he was seven years old, he emigrated to Greenpoint, Brooklyn in 1996 along with his parents and brothers, settling into the large Polish community there. As a youngster, he played a variety of sports, including basketball, baseball, football and soccer. He graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn in 2007.

He grew up watching Andrew Golota fights, which got him interested in boxing. As an overweight youngster who spoke English with a Polish accent, he was frequently the target of bullies at school and on the streets, which gave him further motivation to enter the boxing gym. Early in his boxing career, Kownacki had to work in construction and security in nightclubs to support himself.

Kownacki's first fight of 2018 was against Iago Kiladze, at the Barclays Center, New York, on the undercard of Errol Spence Jr. vs Lamont Peterson. He won the fight by knockout in the sixth round. On 8 September 2018 he faced former IBF heavyweight world champion Charles Martin. After a close ten round fight, Kownacki won by unanimous decision with all judges scoring the bout 96–94 in favor of Kownacki. The bout was a part of the undercard for Danny García vs Shawn Porter at the Barclays Center, New York.

On 26 January 2019 Kownacki faced Gerald Washington. Kownacki was ranked #5 by the IBF and #8 by the WBC. Kownacki knocked out Washington at the beginning of 2nd round.

In his second bout of 2019, on 3 August at the Barclays Center, New York, Kownacki defeated Chris Arreola by unanimous decision (118–110, 117–111, 117–111), winning the IBF Inter-Continental heavyweight title. The fight broke the CompuBox record for the most combined punches thrown (2,172) and landed (667) in a heavyweight fight.

Kownacki vs. Helenius On 7 March 2020, Kownacki faced Robert Helenius in a WBA title eliminator. Kownacki was ranked #3 by the IBF, #4 by the WBA and the WBO and #6 by the WBC, while Helenius was ranked #7 by the WBA. While Kownacki was the heavy favorite, Helenius pulled off a significant upset by stopping Kownacki in the fourth round, handing him his first professional loss.

Kownacki vs. Helenius II After over a year out of the ring, Kownacki returned on 9 October 2021 on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder III, against Robert Helenius in a rematch of their previous 2020 fight. The bout was stopped after six rounds of dominance by Helenius against a clearly overpowered Kownacki. The former had inflicted his opponent with a swollen left eye, before suffering repeated low blows, which caused Kownacki to be disqualified in the sixth round. After the bout, the result was later changed to a technical knockout victory for Helenius.

Personal life Kownacki currently trains with fellow Polish boxer, Sławomir Bohdziewicz. Kownacki's younger brother Łukasz is an entrepreneur.

Professional boxing record