Tomasz Adamek had no trouble with Bobby Gunn on Saturday night in Newark, N.J. Photo by Ed Mulholland / FightWireImages

NEWARK, NJ ÔÇö When Tomasz Adamek fights at the Prudential Center it's like a homecoming for the cruiserweight champ from Poland.

Trumpets blare as if it’s a soccer match in Warsaw. Red and white Polish flags are everywhere. Some of those flags are held by fans in red-and-white face paint. Everyone chants “Ad-a-mek, Ad-a-mek, Ad-a-mek, Ad-a-mek,” with passion.

It’s an Adamek lovefest, but Saturday night was missing one key ingredient ÔÇö a real opponent.

Adamek (38-1, 26 knockouts) retained his RING cruiserweight world championship and IBF title when his fight with overmatched challenger Bobby Gunn was stopped after the fourth round at the advice of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission Control Board doctor Bart Shaber.

Gunn (18-4-1, 15 KOs) realistically had no right to fight for a title, let alone Adamek’s Ring and IBF cruiserweight belts.

But something happened on the way to an easy victory ÔÇö Gunn fought back, and at times fought back well. He just didn’t have the firepower to stay with the superior skills of Adamek.

Adamek did what was expected, snapping punches off on Gunn whose claim to fame was once lasting 2 minutes and 35 seconds with Enzo Maccarinelli before getting stopped. About the only motivation Adamek had was finishing Gunn faster than Maccarinelli.

The Polish Hammer, who lives in nearby Secaucus, finished Gunn in the fourth when a cut opened over the challenger’s left eye. Referee Earl Brown said he would have been willing to let the fight go another round, but Adamek was clearly in control, ahead 40-36 on all three judge’s scorecards after four rounds.

“Gunn was a little tougher than I expected, he did fight back,” Adamek said through an interpreter, “But I knew I was in control and I knew there wasn’t really any fear that [Gunn] could back and hurt me.”

The looming question after Adamek’s frisky sparring session is who is next? It could be Steve Cunningham, who beat Wayne Braithwaite earlier Saturday night in Florida in an IBF title eliminator.

Adamek's promoter Kathy Duva will discuss the prospect of HBO televising the rematch of December's fight of the year candidate sometime in late September or early October.

Adamek has apparently grabbed the attention of the cable giant. Kery Davis, the senior vice president of programming for HBO Sports, was watching intensely at ringside Saturday.

“I’d be willing to give Cunningham a rematch,” Adamek said. “There are some other options, like Hopkins, who I won’t rule out.”

On the undercard, cruiserweight Mateusz Masternak (13-0, 8 KOs) stopped Brooklyn’s Naser Mohamed Aly (4-4, 2 KOs) at the 2:36 of the fifth round when Aly’s corner intervened and ended it. Masternak had been driving home fierce body shots and Aly had already been dropped once in the round before his corner wisely stepped forward and mercifully ended the fight.

Super middleweight Curtis “Showtime” Stevens may have revived his career by smashing previously undefeated Pole Piotr Wilczewski. Stevens felled Wilczewski three times, twice in the first round, once in the third. Stevens (21-2, 15 KOs) had Wilczewski (22-1, 7 KOs) trapped against the ropes and him trapped when referee Earl Morton stepped in and waved it off at 1:46 of the third round.

Welterweight Henry Crawford (22-0-1, 9 KOs) scored a mundane eight-round unanimous decision victory over Kaseem Wilson (12-3-1, 4 KOs). Two judges scored it a shutout, 80-72, and another had it 79-73.

Isreali cruiserweight Ran Nakash remained undefeated (13-0, 9 KOs) after slamming overmatched William Bailey (10-17-2, 6 KOs) with big body punches in scoring a fourth-round stoppage at the 1:49 mark.

Rising middleweight prospect Dennis Douglin (5-0, 3 KOs) used his superior handspeed to overcome a first-round knockdown and win an four-round unanimous decision over Lamar Harris (6-2-1, 4 KOs), by scores of 38-37 on all three judge’s scorecards.

Brooklyn junior middleweight Delen Parsley wore down Tyrone Miles and stopped him at 1:47 of the fourth round. Parsley pounded away at Miles and finally dropped him with a right hook to the body that ended it in the fourth.