Broadway Joel, who generally has his finger on the pulse of Dominican boxing, reported earlier today that WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames will defend his title against Austin “Ammo” Williams on the undercard
of Teofimo Lopez’s January 31st clash with Shakur Stevenson. The historically reliable Francisco Salazar said the same hours later, so it seems like there’s some meat here.
Williams (19-1, 13 KO) is a legitimate contender, winning three straight since a rough knockout loss to Hamzah Sheeraz and notably beating the very capable Patrice Volny along the way. The problem is that Adames (24-1-1, 18 KO) has a mandatory challenger he’s been avoiding for two full years: Meiirim Nursultanov, whom the WBC have ordered “Bronco” to face no less than two times this year alone. There’s even a newly crowned interim champion in Jesus Ramos, who outclassed Shane Mosley Jr this past weekend.
But nah, why not let Adames, who’s fought four times in the last four years and hasn’t seen action since February, fight no. 6 in the rankings.
What’s so stupid about this isn’t just that the WBC’s going back on a decision they reiterated less than a week ago, as they did when they threw out Jadier Herrera’s planned interim lightweight title bout in favor of letting O’Shaquie Foster win it against Stephen Fulton on Saturday. It’s the fact that the sanctioning bodies need to be on their best behavior right now; TKO’s effort to gut the Ali Act enjoyed bipartisan support at least week’s House Education and Workforce Committee meeting. All signs point to the bill passing without issue if it makes it to the floor.
And yet, despite Dana White giving them an open goal this past Saturday by admitting he doesn’t “give a shit” about the rankings when determining title challengers, Sulaiman seems to have upped his autocracy to ludicrous levels. Fingers crossed this reporting is false.
