Will Carlos Adames banish Hamzah Sheeraz ghosts after near-year absence?

Carlos Adames will put his WBC middleweight world championship on the line against Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams as one of three title matchups at Ring 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and live on DAZN PPV, on Saturday night. 

The mega event is headlined by WBO super lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez defending his title against undefeated Shakur Stevenson.

The question with the Adames-Williams' fight is:

Will Adames banish Hamzah Sheeraz ghosts after a near-year absence?

In Adames’ only action of 2025, the Dominican Republic fighter battled Sheeraz to a split draw, which allowed him to retain his title. That came as a result of judges inside ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia scoring it 115-114 for Sheeraz, 118-110 for Adames and 114-114.

After starting out slow and needing to catch a rhythm to get within Sheeraz’s reach advantage, Adames came on strong from the middle to end of the fight, arguably doing enough to win it.

Adames really shined in the eighth round, where he split Sheeraz’s guard with ease and seconds later buried a left hand into the midsection as a distraction, while simultaneously whipping an overhand right onto the British fighter’s jaw with thunder.

After rewatching the fight, I had it 116-112 for Adames in a highly competitive affair. CompuBox stats from the bout showed Adames landed more power punches, 90-48, than Sheeraz.

Still, only one judge saw it as enough to win.

So, rage or rust? Will Adames banish Sheeraz ghosts after a near-year absence?

Based on the nature of Adames’ fight against Sheeraz and Williams’ own aggression, expect more rage than rust from Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs) and a banishing of any lingering ills from his only in-ring appearance of 2025.

The Sheeraz fight should have stressed the urgency of getting off to a quick start for Adames. Also, ‘Ammo’ Williams will have a five-inch reach advantage over the world champion, meaning Adames will need to get inside of the challenger’s jab — even more so than he did against Sheeraz. That should crank up the champ’s forward fighting quite a bit.

Williams (19-1, 13 KOs) had a busier 2025, defeating Patrice Volny by unanimous decision in March before stopping Ivan Vazquez with a ninth-round TKO in July. Since suffering his only professional loss — ironically to Sheeraz via 11^th-round TKO in June 2024 — the American has rattled off three straight wins to earn this position.

‘Ammo’ had his moments against Sheeraz, but ultimately succumbed to a whiplashing right hook — a punch Adames throws with oomph.

The near-year of inactivity is concerning against a gritty opponent like Williams, who is hungry to hear ‘and the new’, but it isn’t foreign territory for Adames.

One would have to date back to 2021 for the last time Adames had at least two fights in a year. Since that point, the Dominican fighter has only fought one opponent a year and has never let ring rust erode at his ability to have his hand raised.

In his only action of 2022, Adames flattened Juan Macias Montiel to become the new WBC interim middleweight titleholder. More than eight months later, he stopped Julian Williams in June 2023 via ninth-round TKO. The next June, just shy of exactly a year, Adames, then elevated to full status WBC middleweight world champion, outpointed Terrell Gausha via unanimous decision.

Then came the draw with Sheeraz just over eight months later. The older a fighter gets, it becomes increasingly difficult to battle ring rust, though Adames and his supporters can at least take solace knowing he has managed it effectively for years and can do so again Saturday night.

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Teofimo López and Shakur Stevenson headline the Ring VI fight night in New York, exclusively on DAZN PPV, this Saturday, January 31.

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