Notebook: Adames hopes to separate himself from 160 pack

Jared Anderson now to face Charles Martin; NSAC punishes Haney, Puello; Prograis hopes Lopez isn't retired; Quick hits; Show and tell

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The middleweight division sure isn’t what it was just a few years ago.

Canelo Alvarez moved up and has become the dominant figure and undisputed champion at super middleweight; long-reigning titleholder Gennadiy Golovkin vacated his two belts this year, is in semi-retirement and may never fight again; former titleholder Daniel Jacobs has moved up in and is near the end; Ryota Murata lost his belt to GGG last year and recently retired; former titleholder Demetrius Andrade, Jamie Munguia and Sergiy Derevyanchenko have also moved up to 168 pounds.

Of the reigning titleholders, the best known is unbeaten Jermall Charlo, whom the WBC inexplicably has allowed to keep its belt despite hitting the two-year mark of inactivity on Monday; 40-year-old WBA titleholder Erislandy Lara, who was elevated when GGG vacated, rarely fights and has not faced a legit opponent since 2019 when he drew with Brian Castano at junior middleweight; and unbeaten WBO titlist Janibek Alimkhanuly, who has a very low profile, has been inconsistent.

There is Carlos Adames, the WBC interim titleholder, who is waiting for a mandatory fight with Charlo that seems nowhere close to taking place.

But Adames, who moved up from junior middleweight to middleweight in 2021, could very well emerge as the best of the bunch. He outpointed Derevyanchenko in a close fight in 2021 and in October blew away Juan Macias Montiel for the vacant interim belt 16 months after Montiel went the distance with Charlo and made him look bad in what was Charlo’s most recent fight.

Now, Adames has a more formidable opponent, on paper at least, in former unified junior middleweight champion Julian “J Rock” Williams, who he will defend the interim belt against in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions tripleheader on Saturday (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET) at The Armory in Minneapolis.

Williams, who won his last fight in November after back-to-back losses, is going into his second fight since moving up middleweight and has Adames’ respect.

“I see Williams as a dangerous opponent,” said Adames, who trained for the fight under the guidance of Bob Santos in Las Vegas. “He’s a former world champion who has a lot of experience and he has nothing to lose at this point in his career. I’m expecting a tough fight, but I feel I’m the better fighter in every aspect.”

Williams (28-3-1, 16 KOs), 33, of Philadelphia, has been stopped in two of his three losses and Adames believes he can hand him another KO defeat.

“I feel I can break him down and end the fight in the middle to late rounds,” Adames said.

A win over Williams would add a quality name to Adames’ resume as he strives to rise to the top of the division, depleted as it is.

“My time will come where I will show the world that I’m the best middleweight,” Adames said. “A dominant victory on Saturday night will ensure me a fight with Jermall Charlo to see who the real WBC middleweight champion is. It’s been very difficult to get the big names in the ring with me, but I just have to keep winning.”

Whatever has become of the 160-pound division, Adames (22-1, 17 KOs), 29, of the Dominican Republic, is in position to at least make some noise in a televised main event against a known opponent.

“This is another great opportunity to showcase my talent on the big stage,” Adames said. “Showtime is where the stars are born. I can’t wait to show my people back in the Dominican Republic, and here in the U.S., all the hard work that we put into this camp. This is my first main event on Showtime and I’m going to take full advantage of the situation. My goal is to win by spectacular knockout.”

Also on the card:

• Junior middleweight Erickson Lubin (24-2, 17 KOs), 27, of Orlando, Florida, who is looking to bounce back from a ninth-round knockout loss to Sebastian Fundora in April 2022 in a fight of the year contender, and Luis Arias (20-3-1, 9 KOs), 33, of Milwaukee, who is 2-2 in his last four fights, including a split decision over former unified champion Jarrett Hurd, will meet in the 10-round co-feature.

• Fernando Martinez (15-0, 8 KOs), 31, of Argentina, will defend the IBF junior bantamweight title for the second time when he faces Jade Bornea (18-0, 12 KOs), 28, of the Philippines, in a mandatory fight in the opener.

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Charles Martin new foe for Anderson

Heavyweight up-and-comer Jared Anderson will take on the most recognizable name of his career in former IBF titleholder Charles Martin in the new main event of Anderson’s homecoming fight on July 1 (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET) at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio, according to Top Rank.

Anderson, the 2021 Fight Freaks Unite prospect of the year, was scheduled to headline the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card against fellow knockout artist Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-0, 18 KOs), 34, a southpaw from Kazakhstan, who was due to make his American debut.

However, Kossobutskiy has not been unable to obtain a visa to travel to the United States so Top Rank was forced to make a change.

Also a southpaw, Martin (29-3-1, 26 KOs), 37, of Carson, California, is far more known to American boxing fans than Kossobutskiy. He held the IBF heavyweight title for three months in 2016 after winning the vacant belt against Vyacheslav Glazkov, who was unable to continue during the third round due to a knee injury. Martin lost the belt in his first defense, getting knocked out by Anthony Joshua in the second round.

Martin is 6-2 since, losing a unanimous decision to Adam Kownacki in 2018 and getting stopped by Luis Ortiz in the sixth round in 2022. Martin bounced back to win his only fight since, a fourth-round knockout of Devin Vargas in September.

Anderson (14-0, 14 KOs), 23, who has shown devastating power, has yet to be tested even as he has raised his level opposition some in recent fights, including a second-round knockout of fringe contender Jerry Forrest in December and a third-round KO of then-undefeated George Arias on April 8.

Haney, Puello punished

The Nevada State Athletic Commission meted out punishments to undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney and former WBA junior welterweight titlist Alberto Puello at its monthly meeting on Tuesday.

Haney (30-0, 15 KOs), 24, of Las Vegas, was fined $25,000 and ordered to pay $326 in fees for his very hard, unprovoked two-handed shove of former unified champion Vasiliy Lomachenko at the weigh-in the day before Haney outpointed him to retain the title on May 20 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The commission initially withheld $400,000 of Haney’s $4 million purse in connection to the incident but said Tuesday that it would return the balance to him.

Also, Puello had a hearing and was suspended for six months and ordered to pay $326 in fees for testing positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug clomiphene in a sample provided to the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association on April 5.

The positive test caused Puello (21-0, 10 KOs), 28, a southpaw from the Dominican Republic, to be stripped of his 140-pound world title and dropped from his first defense against Rolando Romero that was scheduled to headline a Showtime card on May 13 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Romero faced replacement Ismael Barroso and scored a controversial ninth-round knockout to win the vacant title.

Peullo’s suspension ends on Oct. 5, six months after he provided the positive sample. The WBA named him a “champion in recess” pending the resolution of his case and any suspension.

Prograis wants Lopez

WBC junior welterweight titlist Regis Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs), who retained the belt via lackluster split decision in his hometown of New Orleans against Danielito Zorrilla on Saturday night, hopes that Teofimo Lopez isn’t serious about retirement.

Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) outpointed Josh Taylor (19-1, 13 KOs) — the only opponent to ever defeat Prograis in a majority decision to unify to belts in 2019 — to win the lineal and WBO title on June 10 but then announced his retirement and vacated the title days later.

“I wanted Josh to win so I could fight him again, but now, I just have got to fight Teofimo,” said Prograis, who had the first fight of a three-fight deal with Matchroom Boxing on DAZN while Lopez is with Top Rank and boxes on ESPN. “I know he’s saying he’s retired but I hope he is not. I think that would be a huge fight and we must do it.

“There was a video in 2018 with me, Teo and his dad (and trainer Teofimo Lopez Sr.) and his dad was saying, ‘You and my son are going to fight one day, and you are going to be rich.’ So, he called it a long time ago and its still true right to this day, more than ever now. Teo fought on my undercard in New Orleans back in 2018. We just must get that fight.”

Prograis said he has ample respect for Lopez, who became a two-division lineal champion by beating Taylor.

“I always thought that Teo is a great fighter,” Prograis said. “When he was sat 135, I thought he was the best of the lot. He’s explosive, he’s got power, he can box. So, I would never look past a fighter of his caliber, but I still believe I whoop him. I think he’s frustrated. I don’t think he’s going to retire. If he fought me, he’d probably get 10 times what he got for the Taylor fight. There are too many big fights out there for him. He’s going through some things. He won’t walk away.”

Quick hits

Top Rank has acquired U.S. rights to the Boxxer card on July 1 at AO Arena in Manchester, England, and it will stream on ESPN+ beginning at 2 p.m. Undisputed women’s super middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn (8-1, 2 KOs), 35, of Baltimore, defends against former middleweight titlist Savannah Marshall (12-1, 10 KOs), 32, of England, in the main event, having moved up the card after the postponement of the middleweight rematch between Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr. after Smith suffered a training injury. Unified women’s junior middleweight champion Natasha Jonas (13-2-1, 8 KOs), 39, of England, is dropping down to welterweight and will face former title challenger Kandi Wyatt (11-4, 3 KOs), 32, of Canada, for the vacant IBF belt in the co-feature.

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Contrary to ESPN’s report citing unnamed sources that IBF junior welterweight titlist Subriel Matias would defend the title against former titleholder Sergey Lipinets on Showtime on Aug. 26, there are no such plans. “We do not have Matias versus Lipinets, or any other fight, scheduled for Aug. 26, nor do we currently have any plans to schedule a ‘Showtime Championship Boxing’ telecast on that date,” Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza told Fight Freaks Unite.

Show and tell

Hall of Famers Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales are on the short list of greatest boxers ever from Mexico, each won titles in multiple weight classes (Morales in four, Barrera in three) and they engaged in many thrilling fights. But they are best remembered for their legendary trilogy. Their first fight, which was to unify junior featherweight world titles, is one of the greatest fights in boxing history, an all-out slugfest of the highest order that resulted in a controversial split decision victory for Morales. A little over two years later they met in the inevitable and hugely hyped rematch, this time for Morales’ WBC featherweight world title in a fight I was ringside to cover for USA Today at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The fight, which had been delayed for three months because Barrera suffered a rib injury in training, was the least exciting of the trilogy but it was still a very worthy bout between greats. Whereas Morales got the disputed decision in the first fight, Barrera won a heavily debated decision in the sequel, 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113, but declined to accept the WBC featherweight title he had won, so it became vacant. The rematch took place on June 22, 2002 — 21 years ago on Thursday. Here are two posters from the fight in my collection: an extraordinarily rare site duratran that hung in an MGM Grand light box during fight week and the site poster that could be purchased at the MGM Grand gift shop and on fight night in the arena.

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Photos: Adames: MJS Entertainment; Martin and Haney-Lomachenko/Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Prograis: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing

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