With a contentious TKO victory over Julian Williams, Carlos Adames keeps the interim middleweight championship.

Williams was exchanging fire when the referee intervened, angering his corner.

On Saturday night, Carlos Adames earned the biggest victory of his career. Before scoring a ninth-round TKO to keep his interim WBC middleweight title, the Dominican boxer outworked former unified junior middleweight champion Julian Williams. Although there was significant debate surrounding the decision to end the bout, Adames once again shown why he is regarded as one of the middleweight division’s most dangerous competitors.

Williams attempted to box open, preventing Adames from moving inside and making powerful throws. That helped him during the first round’s opening moments, when Adames was attempting to figure out how to get close enough to let go of his hands.

Adames quickly came up with the answer, rattling Williams with a strong straight left and a follow-up stroke.

Williams hunkered down on his shots and started to hit some significant power punches to get Adames’ respect as a true battle started to break out as it became evident that simply trying to maintain distance and box was not going to be a long-term option for him.

Unfortunately for Williams, Adames’ advantage came from the bout turning into a bit of a gunfight as his punching force and volume gradually seized control of it. Adames also started launching heavy blows to Williams’ body as the bout descended into a close-quarters battle, slowing down the former unified world champion as Adames started to totally seize the initiative.

To his credit, Williams persisted in the fight, occasionally connecting with solid strikes, especially in Round 8, as Adames’ offensive production and punching velocity slowed down.

Williams appeared to be reentering the fight until Adames increased his output. In the ninth round, Adames started to land clean blows more frequently, hurting Williams and forcing her to frequently clinch in an effort to halt the attack. Williams kept a high guard and was returning blows, but the referee intervened to end the fight even though Williams appeared to be active and effective enough to continue.

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Williams’ corner was furious at the interruption, but there was little that could be done because Adames had the situation under control. After the bout, Adames made it plain that he thought the stoppage was appropriate.

Adames viewed a replay of the fight’s closing seconds and remarked, “That’s why the referee halted it. I had two rights when I arrived, and if I had hit him with another, he might have been seriously injured.

Williams, unsurprisingly, was vehemently against the referee’s conduct.

“What can I do? I think it was a terrible stoppage.” stated Williams. I’m in good health. It seemed to me to be a dreadful stop. Although he was growing exhausted, what could I do?

With the victory, Adames kept his hold on the WBC middleweight belt, and he may soon become the undisputed champion of the world. In his upcoming fight, WBC champion Jermall Charlo is expected to switch to super middleweight and take on undisputed champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Charlo hasn’t competed in more than two years.

In that case, it’s possible that the WBC would vote to remove Charlo’s title and recognise Adames as the new world champion. When asked about his career’s future move, Adames didn’t say much.

“I’m a warrior,” Adames declared. I’m going to take a short break now, and then we’ll see what happens.