Former IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Julin ‘J-Rock’ Williams and WBC interim 160-lb champ Carlos Adames both weighed in successfully on Friday at the weigh-in for their main event contest on Showtime at The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Adames (22-1, 17 KOs) came in at 159.6 lbs, while J-Rock (28-3-1, 16 KOs) weighed 159.2 pounds.
J-Rock, 33, needs to find the Fountain of Youth before Saturday night because he’s looked like a faded fighter since 2020, losing two out of his last three fights to Vladimir Hernandez and Jeison Rosario.
If J-Rock can get back to being the fighter that beat Jarrett Hurd in 2019, Adames could be in trouble tomorrow night, but that’s unlikely to happen.
Adames has looked good in his last two fights, beating Juan Macias Montiel and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Still, Adames is beatable, but it’s going to take someone like a motivated Jermall Charlo and Janibek Alimkhanuly to do it.
On the undercard, junior middleweight contender Erickson Lubin will be coming back from a year layoff after his punishing loss to Sebastian Fundora to face Luis Arias.
Weights
Fernando Martinez 114.6 vs. Jade Bornea 115
Erickson Lubin 156.6 vs. Luis Arias 155.8
Caleb Truax 174.8 vs. Burley Brooks 174
Jerwin Ancajas 121.8 vs. Wilner Soto 120.8
Mickel Spencer 141.4 vs. Lyle McFarlane 141.4
“I think he’s a solid fighter, but I guess Jermall Charlo has some personal issues. I don’t know if he’s scared to fight him,” said J-Rock Williams’ trainer Stephen ‘Breadman’ Edwards to YSM Sports Media, reacting to being told that Carlos Adames thinks the middleweight champions Jermall Charlo and Janibek are afraid to fight him.
“I know Janibek is with Top Rank. Sometimes when you call those type of names, it’s an unrealistic thing, but no one over here is scared to fight him. If that’s what they think, it’s fine, but I don’t know about all that kind of stuff. When I was offered the fight, I took it.
“Go back to his old self and fight with confidence,” said Edwards when asked what J-Rock Williams must do to defeat Adames on Saturday night. “Listen to not so much the game plan, but listen to the adjustments and be mean to this guy.
“There are some things I seen with the guy that I’m not going to get into. I don’t want to talk about the fight too much and give nobody some extra motivation.
“I’m definitely not walking around on eggshells with the guy about who he might be fighting and all this kind of stuff. He’s got to be his old self, and he’s got to execute.
“I know what the perception of the fight is going in. Julian is past it, and this guy is a killer and all this kind of stuff. But we’re going to see if this guy is everything that he claims that he is.
“I don’t think his resume is that deep, but we’ll see. Everyone says that. I don’t want to get into it because everyone has still got to execute, but it’s been a real good camp,” said Edwards when asked if this was the best camp J-Rock Williams has had.
“We train hard. We’re going to see on Saturday night. That’s all I can say. We’re going to see,” said Edwards when asked what type of J-Rock we’re going to see on Saturday.
“I don’t talk no s**t about nobody. I respect the fighters, but we’re going to see what happens,” said Edwards.
