Brandon Adams second chance at Boxcino Greatness

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dpt-spocfightclub-1Brandon Adams is getting a second chance at Boxcino greatness. The ESPN 2014 middleweight Boxcino finalist was one win away from winning the tournament, but the moment belonged to Willie Monroe Jr., and it was his time.

Adams is moving down in weight for this opportunity to be part of ESPN’s 2015 junior middleweight Boxcino tournament. It’s hard to call him the clear cut favorite because the rest of the class is mostly unproven and it could be a fighter’s chance to show their worth by going from unknown to established commodity within the division.

Still, you have to consider Adams a favorite because he has experience in the tournament, and he made it to the finals. As long as he can make the transition to junior middleweight successfully, Adams is at least a viable pick. Adams has never consistently competed at junior middleweight, although he is only a couple years removed from his last fight around the 154lb weight class (Adams fought at 155lbs in September of 2013).
Adams feels confident about the drop in weight and doesn’t see it being an issue.

“As long as I have a couple of weeks, I can make 154lbs with no problem,” said Adams. “When I fought at middleweight, I used to just eat and not worry about my weight.”

Adams is a late starter in boxing. He had his first amateur fight at the age of 20, but he quickly turned pro after only eight amateur fights.
He makes no excuse for losing to Monroe Jr., admitting that his opponent was the better man that night, but he didn’t have a completely distraction-free camp as his wife was set to give birth to their first child the week of the Boxcino finals.

Now, with his son born and his family acting as a strong motivator, Adams is confident heading into the quarter-finals of the tournament. His first fight will be against Alex Perez (18-1, 10KOs). The 32-year-old Perez suffered his lone loss to the highly ranked welterweight contender Antonin Decarie.

Adams won’t have the kind of size advantage you’d expect from a fighter coming down in weight, but Perez hasn’t been terribly active over the last few years with only five fights since 2012. Perez was a big welterweight, but Adams has been fighting bigger, so that is worth something heading into the clash.

Dub Huntley, Adams’ trainer, believes his fighter is on the verge of capitalizing off of this opportunity and rectifying his Boxcino miss last year. Adams successfully bounced back from the Monroe Jr. loss by blitzing Lekan Byfield in the second round of their fight last month.

Byfield was down in the first round and then twice in the second.
Huntley is confident that Adams can win a world title.
“If he keeps his mind right, he can be a champion. He’s strong, unusually strong, and he hits like a heavyweight. He’s got a really good chance to make it,” Huntley said.