Carlos Adames Beats Jerome Warburton By Unanimous Decision In Riyadh

Carlos Adames won almost everything except an argument for making this fight the main event. The WBC middleweight champion beat Gerome Warburton by unanimous decision at The Venue in Riyadh, controlling ten rounds with his heavier punching while the Welshman devoted most of his attention to remaining beyond reach.

The scores, 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92, left no room for complaint about the winner. Adames made a successful Zuffa Boxing debut. Whether he made many new admirers is another matter. There was a considerable difference in class, but precious little urgency about demonstrating its full extent.

Contested at an agreed 165lb, five pounds above the middleweight limit, the bout carried no championship. Adames remains WBC champion, with his record improved from 25 wins, one defeat and one draw to 26 wins, one defeat and one draw, including 18 stoppages. Warburton leaves with 18 wins, three defeats and two draws, with two stoppages.

The southpaw from Colwyn Bay had earned this opportunity through successive points victories over former British champion Nathan Heaney. Here, however, the leap in opposition was plain. Movement which prevented Adames from setting his feet was rarely accompanied by the punches needed to make him reconsider coming forward.

Neither man hurried through the opening exchanges. Adames advanced cautiously, looking for single openings rather than putting together sustained attacks. Warburton gave ground and offered tentative resistance. The champion had the initiative almost by default. There were lengthy passages in which anticipation supplied more activity than either boxer.

Adames began finding the body with his right hand in the second. It was the sensible target against an opponent whose first response was to move away: the head could disappear beyond range, but the ribs were harder to take out of the argument. Those punches supplied the clearest early evidence of the difference in their strength.

After three restrained rounds, the Dominican increased his pressure. Warburton became busier with the jab as he was pushed towards the ropes, yet he could not establish a sustained attack of his own. Adames continued to dictate where the contest was going, even when he failed to keep his opponent in position long enough to build combinations.

The middle rounds exposed the limitation in that pursuit. Adames would follow Warburton and could punish him downstairs when he reached him, but following a moving opponent and shutting off his exits are different jobs. Too often the champion had to begin the chase again after landing his scoring punches.

Warburton deserves credit for the discipline and resilience that kept him in the contest. His legs repeatedly bought him space. But the purpose of defensive movement is to create opportunities as well as avoid punishment, and far too little came back to disturb Adames. The Welshman was protecting his position on the canvas while surrendering his position on the cards.

The seventh brought some of Adames’ most effective body punching. Here was the threat that had been present throughout: whenever the distance narrowed, the champion could deliver the more damaging blows. Warburton continued to move, denying him the prolonged exchanges that might have produced a finish.

There was a little more ambition from the Welshman in the eighth. He let his hands go more freely, briefly interrupting the familiar pattern. It did not become a change of command. Adames resumed his pursuit, and the closing rounds again offered the spectacle of one man seeking contact and the other rationing it.

The champion pressed in the last, but a late effort could not convert his superiority into a stoppage. Warburton celebrated reaching the final bell, climbing the ropes with his gloves raised. He had every right to value his endurance. The judges were assessing a different achievement.

“I think he was just in the ring to survive,” Adames said afterwards. His own dissatisfaction was understandable, although the responsibility for forcing a more decisive contest was also his. An opponent reluctant to exchange presents a technical problem; the better fighter still has to solve it.

Adames issued a broader challenge: “Who wants to fight Carlos Adames?” The WBC already has a definite answer. Its mandatory ruling requires him to face Meiirim Nursultanov next, with the winner then obliged to meet interim champion Jesus Ramos Jr. Those obligations give his middleweight future considerably more substance than this excursion above the limit.

I give Warburton credit for his toughness, but moving away without making your opponent pay is survival, not effective boxing. His feet kept him out of trouble, yet his punch selection offered Adames little to think about. Adames deserved the win comfortably, but I wanted better ring cutting and more combinations once he reached the body. He spent too long following rather than closing the exits. Warburton came to last, and Adames never applied enough sustained pressure to change that plan.