It proved to be a frustrating night for new WBC Middleweight Champion, Jermall Charlo, who kept his belt with a wide points win against former Contender winner, Brandon Adams.
Charlo was upgraded to full Champion earlier this week, after a spell as Interim holder, when the WBC inexplicably upgraded Saul Alvarez to “Franchise” Champion, for reasons only known to the governing body.
Charlo admitted post fight at the NRG Arena in Houston, Texas, that an injury to his left hand in the second round hampered his performance, and it showed.
In fairness though, Adams was relying more on his defensive work that attempting to make a real argument for winning, and despite showing good defensive skills and a solid chin, he never looked like causing an upset. A hard left hand clean to the chin, followed by a flurry of punches in round six was as good as it got for the Californian.
Jermall was simply too good for Adams, and he defied the hand injury to land solid and clean shots throughout the fight.
In the end, two scores of 118-110, and a third at 119-109 was enough for the Champion to keep his gold.
Charlo did discuss the likes of facing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin after his win, but these could prove difficult matches to make, as the pair are contracted to DAZN, while Charlo is part of the Premier Boxing Champions stable.
Elsewhere on the card, Erickson Lubin continued his rebuild following a one round knockout loss to Jermall Charlo’s brother, Jermell back in October 2017, with a fourth round stoppage win against Zakaria Attou. The Charlo loss was a challenge for the WBC Super Welterweight Title.
Lubin dropped his man in round four with a volley of varied shots. Attou was on unsteady legs, and after the count, Attou’s corner threw in the towel.
Lubin is once again the WBC Super Welterweight number one contender as a result of the win.
Claudio Marrero unanimously outscored Eduardo Ramirez in a Featherweight twelve rounder in the other main fight on the televised portion of the bill.
