6/29 PBC on SHO: Jermall Charlo vs Brandon Adams (WBC Middleweight Title)

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Jermall Charlo, a professional boxer since 2008, has boxed only twice in his hometown of Houston but has wanted to fight there again.

Now he will have his chance when he defends his interim middleweight belt for the second time when he takes on Brandon Adams on June 29 in the main event of a Showtime-televised tripleheader at NRG Arena in Houston.

"It's time for me to put up for my city of Houston. George Foreman is back and he's in the middleweight division," Charlo said Friday, invoking the former heavyweight champion and longtime Houston resident after the fight was formally announced.

"That's the way I feel about fighting in my hometown. You know how hot it gets down here in the summer, and no one is going to be able to take this heat that I'm about to deliver. I've been working hard with [trainer] Ronnie Shields and making some adjustments and now you're going to see me back with the knockout power."

Charlo (28-0, 21 KOs), 28, a former junior middleweight titlist and the twin brother of former junior middleweight titleholder Jermell Charlo, is coming off a disputed unanimous decision over Matt Korobov on Dec. 22 in Brooklyn, New York. Now he will face Adams (21-2, 13 KOs), 29, of Los Angeles, who got the fight on the strength of his winning the reboot of "The Contender" reality series in November, when he easily outpointed Shane Mosley Jr. in the final.

"I know Brandon Adams is looking at this as a big opportunity, but it's a big step up for him," Charlo said. "The pressure isn't on him. It's on me, because I'm fighting in my hometown and I'm going to deliver what the fans have come to expect from me.''

Charlo has not boxed in Houston since 2012. He also fought there in 2009.

After Adams suffered a second-round knockout loss to John Thompson in May 2015 in the final of the ESPN Boxcino junior middleweight tournament, he didn't fight again for three years. But then he was cast as one of the participants in "The Contender" tournament and ran the table, winning all four of his bouts. It paved the way to a much bigger fight.

"I am very grateful for the opportunity and ready to prove that I belong in the conversation as one of the top fighters in the middleweight division," Adams said. "This is an opportunity that I couldn't turn down. They must feel that I am beatable, and want to use my name that I built up on 'The Contender,' so now I need to show why I won 'The Contender' and continue my winning ways. Charlo is a solid fighter and he's a champion for a reason. I look forward to matching skills with him and showcasing my ability."

Said Artie Pelullo of Banner Promotions, Adams' co-promoter with Jeff Wald of The Tournament of Contenders: "This is the right fight at the right time in Brandon's career."

The card will also feature a pair of world title eliminators:
  • Junior middleweight Erickson Lubin (20-1, 15 KOs), 23, a southpaw from Orlando, Florida, and the 2016 ESPN prospect of the year, will face heavy underdog Zakaria Attou (29-6-2, 7 KOs), 37, of France, who will be making his United States debut. The winner will move a step closer to a mandatory shot at the 154-pound title held by Tony Harrison.​
  • Featherweight Eduardo Ramirez (22-1-3, 9 KOs), 26, of Mexico, will meet former interim titlist Claudio Marrero (23-3, 17 KOs), 30, of the Dominican Republic, in a fight between southpaws that will position the winner for a mandatory bout with regular titlist Xu Can. Ramirez challenged for a featherweight world title in December 2017 and lost a decision to Lee Selby but has won both of his fights since by knockout. Marrero is coming off a decision loss to Tugstsogt Nyambayar in January.​
 

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Jermall Charlo: Where'd Canelo Go? How Can He Skip Me Like That?
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By Keith Idec

HOUSTON – Jermall Charlo had just finished a weight-cutting session Wednesday when his phone rang.

It was his trainer, Ronnie Shields, who had some interesting news to relay to the WBC’s interim middleweight champion. Before Shields could tell Charlo about the WBC’s bizarre announcement, Charlo clicked over to answer Al Haymon’s call.

Haymon called Charlo to tell him the same thing, that the WBC had elevated him from interim to world middleweight champion because the Mexico City-based sanctioning organization designated Canelo Alvarez as its first franchise champion.

Removing the interim tag from his status sounded good, but a somewhat confused Charlo understandably had questions. First and foremost, Charlo wanted to know how Alvarez was allowed to technically remain a WBC middleweight champion without having to make a seemingly overdue mandatory defense against him.

It was a valid concern coming from a fighter who was an interim champion for 14 months.

“I was just like, ‘Where Canelo go? If I’ve been elevated to the regular champion, where is Canelo? How can he just skip me and just leave the belt alone like that?’ ” Charlo asked after a press conference Thursday at NRG Stadium. “Well, Canelo has the bigger belt. Well, that’s the belt I want now. So, eventually when the time comes and what he’s done for the sport, I’ll continue to do what I’m doing and hopefully I’ll become a franchise champion, too.”

Charlo calmly discussed the WBC’s dubious decision Thursday, but elevating Alvarez to “franchise champion” essentially ended any chance Charlo might’ve had at proving himself against Alvarez in the foreseeable future. The financial impact eliminating Alvarez as a potential opponent has on him isn’t lost on the 29-year-old Charlo, either, but he has tried to remain positive.

“No matter how hard it is to get the fights that I want,” Charlo said, “I’ll get ‘em sooner or later and it’s gonna make it all even better.”

There were obvious obstacles to making an Alvarez-Charlo bout before the WBC announced its dumbfounding designation – most notably Charlo’s affiliation with Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions, Showtime and FOX and Alvarez’s long-term partnership with DAZN. Then again, Charlo could’ve accepted one of British promoter Eddie Hearn’s offers and immediately had a much better chance of facing Alvarez on DAZN, with which the Mexican superstar has a five-year, 11-fight deal that could become worth $365 million.

Alvarez, meanwhile, has a list of options that includes a lucrative third fight against Gennadiy Golovkin, a middleweight title unification fight against the winner of the Demetrius Andrade-Maciej Sulecki WBO championship match Saturday night and a return to the super middleweight division to battle WBA champ Callum Smith.

Even though Alvarez no longer is obligated to make a WBC title defense against him, Charlo still hopes he has a realistic place on Alvarez’s list.

“I would love to fight Canelo,” Charlo said. “Everyone in the world know that I would love to fight Canelo. I’m not dodging any fighters. I’m fighting all of my mandatories. It’s a trophy. It’s a belt that sets up other fights in the future. But we’re fighters, man. We’re here to fight. That’s what we’re here to do while we have that window of opportunity to do it. I wanna become one of the best fighters out there. And the only way I can do it is to fight the best out there.”

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Charlo (28-0, 21 KOs) is scheduled to defend his middleweight title against huge underdog Brandon Adams (21-2, 13 KOs) on Saturday night. Their “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event will be broadcast from NRG Arena in Houston, Charlo’s hometown.

His critics have chastised Charlo for fighting Adams, who won the fifth season of “The Contender” reality series seven months ago. Since moving up from junior middleweight two years ago, Charlo’s list of 160-pound opponents includes Jorge Heiland, Hugo Centeno Jr., Matt Korobov and Adams.

Those aren’t the types of challenges Charlo needs to pursue if he is to establish the “legacy” he mentioned again Thursday. Now that the WBC has reclassified Charlo as its middleweight champion, however, he hopes it entices top opponents other than Alvarez to fight him.

“I think it should make the fights easier [to make], with me being the champion now,” Charlo said. “Because now the guys will wanna come out and get this belt. And we won’t have successful stories like I’m fittin’ to fight right now, like a Brandon Adams. And I know the fans think that I chose this, but I didn’t. I look high [on] Brandon Adams. I think he’s a talented fighter. He has a lot of attributes that fighters I’ve fought in the past didn’t have. So, I’m not taking him lightly or anything. But it is what it is. I have to be patient, be calm and get my job done.”

Assuming Charlo can do that against a someone who’ll face the best opponent of his career, Charlo figures that should at least enable him to fight the Andrade-Sulecki winner later this year.

“I wanna become the unified, undisputed champion at middleweight,” Charlo said. “I wanna do things that Roy Jones done and that Bernard Hopkins done, and the best middleweights out there in the world have done. I definitely wanna make those my goals.”

Andrade also is contractually committed to having his fights streamed by DAZN, yet Charlo doesn’t think that should prevent them from fighting if Alvarez remains unavailable.

“You cannot hide behind a weight division or a network or any title or any of that,” Charlo said. “Because boxing is boxing. The best should fight the best, and that’s what I’m here to do.”

If Charlo can’t secure fights against other elite middleweights, he’ll adhere to whichever WBC obligations he’ll have as its middleweight champion.

“I don’t even know who my mandatory contender is,” Charlo said. “But I won’t do what Canelo did. I will fight my mandatories. You know, my manager, Al Haymon, schedules all of my fights and put me in the best positions to better my life and my career. So, you don’t have to worry about Jermall Charlo holding on to the belt at any time. I’ll be fighting again by the end of the year.”
 

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Jermall Charlo-Brandon Adams Weigh-In Results From Houston

By Keith Idec

HOUSTON – Brandon Adams smiled wide as he stood in front of a significantly taller Jermall Charlo after they weighed in Friday afternoon.

Charlo stood, stone-faced, as he stared downward, into Adams’ eyes. Charlo told Showtime’s Steve Farhood he didn’t know what to make of Adams’ unusually cheerful demeanor, but Adams assured Farhood that he isn’t merely happy to get his first world title shot Saturday night.

Moments earlier, Charlo and Adams made weight for their 12-round, 160-pound title fight.

The 6-feet Charlo came in slightly lighter, 159½ pounds, than the 5-feet-9 Adams when he stepped on the Texas Combative Sports Program’s scale at NRG Center. Adams officially weighed exactly 160 pounds.

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Houston’s Charlo (28-0, 21 KOs) and Los Angeles’ Adams (21-2, 13 KOs) will square off at nearby NRG Center in the main event of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” tripleheader.

The 29-year-old Charlo, whom the WBC recently elevated from its interim middleweight title-holder to its world middleweight champ, is heavily favored to defeat Adams.

Adams, also 29, won the fifth season of “The Contender” reality series seven months ago. He is the WBC’s 12th-ranked contender at 160 pounds.

Before Charlo and Adams made weight, Erickson Lubin and Zakaria Attou met their contractual obligations for their WBC super welterweight elimination match.

Lubin (20-1, 15 KOs), of Orlando, Florida, officially weighed 153¾ pounds. The southpaw was 154¼ pounds when he first stepped on the scale, but he was 153¾ pounds on his second attempt shortly thereafter.

Attou (29-6-2, 7 KOs), of Paris, France, initially stepped on the scale at 154¼ pounds as well, also slightly over the limit for their WBC eliminator. He stripped naked and officially weighed in at 153¾ pounds, too.

Lubin and Attou engaged in a lengthy staredown after they made weight.

If he defeats the 14th-ranked Attou, Lubin, who’s ranked No. 4 by the WBC, expects to become that sanctioning organization’s mandatory challenger for the winner of the rematch between WBC 154-pound champ Tony Harrison (28-2, 21 KOs) and former champ Jermell Charlo (32-1, 16 KOs).

Showtime will televise the Lubin-Attou fight immediately before the Charlo-Adams match.

Mexico’s Eduardo Ramirez (22-1-3, 9 KOs) and the Dominican Republic’s Claudio Marrero (23-3, 17 KOs) also made weight Friday for their 12-round WBA featherweight elimination match.

Ramirez, who holds the WBA’s gold featherweight championship, came in at 125¼ pounds. Marrero, who’s ranked No. 9 by the WBA, weighed in at 125¾ pounds.

Showtime’s three-bout broadcast will begin with the Ramirez-Marrero match at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
 
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