HEADLINING at the NRG Arena in his hometown of Houston, Texas, unbeaten middleweight Jermall Charlo proved that size matters. The WBC middleweight title-holder dominated the considerably smaller Brandon Adams with his superior strength and skills to retain his belt for the first time in front of a sold-out crowd of 6,408.
Only three days prior to the bout, Charlo had been elevated from interim to full champion following the WBC’s inexplicable announcement that they had upgraded their main titlist, pound-for-pound superstar Canelo Alvarez, to franchise champion.
Despite injuring his left hand as early as the second round, Charlo had no trouble dissecting Adams, 29, with his sharp, accurate punches both upstairs and down. Adams, of Norwalk, California, demonstrated his durability by sticking around until the final bell, but the 2018 Contender winner was unable to mount any significant attacks of his own.
At the end of 12 one-sided sessions, Charlo was awarded a near-shutout victory by scores of 120-108 (twice) and 119-109. Afterwards, the 29-year-old declared that he is now ready to prove himself as the No. 1 middleweight.
“Canelo has done a great job of being a champ, [Gennady] Golovkin also,” the two-division world ruler said. “Those guys are at the top, but there’s always a young underdog and lion ready to take over. That’s me.”
