Julian Williams doesn’t think Carlos Adames’ accomplishments warrant the hype that have led some to tout the emerging Dominican as the best fighter in the middleweight division.
The former IBF/IBO/WBA 154-pound champion conceded that Adames is “a good fighter,” but Williams took their 12-round fight Saturday night because he is certain he’ll knock off the WBC interim 160-pound titleholder. Adames (22-1, 17 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBC belt when he faces Williams (28-3-1, 16 KOs, 1 NC) in a “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event at The Armory in Minneapolis (9 p.m. EDT; 6 p.m. PDT).
Handicappers have made Adames a 5-1 favorite to defeat Philadelphia’s Williams, who contends that his opponent still has plenty to prove versus fighters who have succeeded at the level Williams once thrived.
“I do think he’s a good fighter regardless of whether he’s a junior middleweight or middleweight,” Williams told BoxingScene.com. “I think he’s a good fighter, but he hasn’t fought the upper echelon of guys in either division. You know what I mean? The [Patrick] Teixeira fight, he was a favorite in that fight and he got beat. Then he fought [Sergiy] Derevyanchenko, who’s a tough fighter and that was a close fight, could’ve went either way. But he obviously won it.
“I think he’s a good fighter, but I think he’s a beatable fighter. I think sometimes like people get caught up in too many different things. Nobody’s unbeatable. You know what I mean? That’s how I look at every fight, no matter who I’m fighting. Nobody’s unbeatable. Anybody can be beat.”
The 29-year-old Adames looked like an elite-level fighter in his last appearance. He fought exclusively as a southpaw and blew out Mexican contender Juan Macias Montiel (23-6-2, 23 KOs), whom Adames dropped and stopped in the third round of their October 8 fight for the WBC interim championship at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. Adames defeated Derevyanchenko (14-5, 10 KOs) by majority decision in his previous bout, a 10-rounder in December 2021 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Bob Santos, Adames’ trainer, has repeatedly stated that Adames is a different fighter from the improperly prepared junior middleweight who lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Brazil’s Teixeira (then 30-1) in November 2019 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Adames’ former promoter, Top Rank Inc., parted ways with Adames after his loss to Teixeira, but he rejuvenated his career after partnering with Santos and Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.
Williams, meanwhile, has plenty to prove as well. The former junior middleweight champion has beaten only Argentinean journeyman Rolando Mansilla (18-12-1, 8 KOs) by eight-round unanimous decision since he suffered back-to-back losses to Jeison Rosario and Vladimir Hernandez.
The Dominican Republic’s Rosario (then 19-1-1) upset Williams by fifth-round technical knockout in January 2020 at Temple University’s Liacouras Center in Philadelphia. Mexico’s Hernandez (then 12-4) upset Williams by 10-round split decision in October 2021 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Most middleweights have not wanted to fight Adames, yet Williams viewed this as a chance he couldn’t pass up.
“It’s a big opportunity,” Williams said. “I mean, whenever you get a chance to fight for a world title, whether it’s interim or a full title, I think you should take it. It’s a good opportunity against a good fighter. … [Beating Adames will] work wonders. It’s the reason why I took the fight, to get back in position, to get back in the mix of things. It’s a great opportunity. Like I said, I’mma grab it with both hands.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.