In his first defense of the WBC Middleweight title, Jermall Charlo (29-0, 21 KOs) scored a unanimous decision victory over Brandon Adams (21-3, 13 KOs).
The contest took place at NRG Arena, in Houston, Texas, Charlo’s hometown.
Adams earned his title shot by winning the well known television series and tournament, The Contender. Still, a fight against Charlo was considered a major step up in class and it proved to be just that.
The pressure of fighting in front of his hometown crowd didn’t seem to bother Charlo. In the opening round he felt his opponent out. In the second round however, he turned up his aggression. The Houston native landed a few eye-caching shots on his man and in turn the crowd began to anticipate a knockout. To the credit of Adams, he boxed very well.
Charlo came into this contest with every measurable working in his favor. He carried a three-inch height advantage and a three-and-a-half inch reach advantage as well.
Adams didn’t just sit back and become a punching bag. Instead, he moved in and out and used angles to confuse the champion. Adams forced his way on the inside and tried to make it an ugly affair. At times it worked. A clash of heads occurred several times throughout.
As the fight got uglier because of Adams’ aggression, Charlo seemed to enjoy it. The current Middleweight champion pushed his man back and uncorked a ton of huge shots. It wasn’t the power shots that led to Charlo’s success, but it was more so his jab. He staggered Adams several times because of it.
No matter how hard Charlo tried to end the night early, Adams just simply wouldn’t allow it. The challenger made his man miss several of his wide looping shots. Defensively, Adams was great, but offensively he just couldn’t get anything going.
As the final bell rang, the entire arena understood that their man won the contest. The judges were in agreement with the crowd as they scored the contest 119-109 and two scores of 120-108–effectively giving the challenger Adams just one round.
It was a dominant showing for the newly minted WBC Middleweight champion.
The fights were hot in Houston 🔥#RamirezMarrero | #LubinAttou | #CharloAdams pic.twitter.com/HNIE3ibsU4
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) June 30, 2019
