Charlo wins wide decision over Adams, retains WBC title

Jermall Charlo didn’t have the explosive performance he wanted, but took a one-sided win anyway.

Jermall Charlo didn’t get the knockout he wanted in his return home to Houston, but he dominated over 12 rounds against Brandon Adams, retaining the WBC middleweight title by unanimous decision.

Scores were 119-109, 120-108, and 120-108. Bad Left Hook had it 118-110 for Charlo, lazily and indifferently awarding the final two rounds to Adams because our score means nothing and it was fun to do something different for the last six minutes.

Charlo didn’t necessarily cruise in this one, as Adams (21-3, 13 KO) did present an awkward style and did his best to negate Charlo’s offense and power, perhaps at the expense of his own offense too often to really be competitive.

Charlo injured his left hand early in the fight, but fought through the pain, continuing to throw it, even if he never quite got the jab going effectively.

“He came out to box, I came out to fight. Styles make matchups, he had a great style for my matchup,” Charlo said after the fight.

Asked about the injury, Charlo replied, “My hand will be alright. That’s part of boxing. I hurt my hand in, like, the second round, but I tried not to show it. I kept throwing it. But I had a good night, it was fun.”

“I was coming here to win, to take this dude out in his hometown, take everything that he brings to the table,” Adams said. “He did what he was supposed to do, he’s a champion for a reason.”

Adams added, “He’s a much bigger guy, period. I put my best foot forward and went for that Joe Frazier, Evander Holyfield style. But eventually he just started boxing. He did what he was supposed to do.”

Charlo was counted as landing 151 of 634 (24%) total punches and 118 of 369 (32%) power shots. Adams was tallied at 73 of 334 (22%) total punches and 42 of 179 (23%) power punches.