Carlos Adames beats Gerome Warburton on points in Zuffa debut

Carlos Adames beat Gerome Warburton by unanimous decision in Riyadh on Saturday, though the Welsh challenger took the WBC middleweight champion the full 10 rounds.

The judges scored the main event at Zuffa Boxing 13 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92. The fight was contracted at a 165lb catchweight at The Venue, so Adames’ world title wasn’t on the line. It was the Dominican’s first fight under the Zuffa Boxing banner.

How Carlos Adames beat Gerome Warburton

The early rounds were slow. Both men did more looking than punching, and Adames seemed in no hurry to close the distance. From the third round, and more so from the fifth, the champion began to push forward.

Warburton spent most of the night moving around the edge of the ring. Adames kept going to the body, and CBS Sports reported that a big hook to the body in the seventh seemed to freeze the Colwyn Bay fighter for a moment.

It was a smart plan. The only time Warburton had been stopped before was in May 2025, when Kieron Conway beat him in the fourth round with a body attack. Conway won the vacant British middleweight title that night and kept his Commonwealth belt. Adames, though, could never pin Warburton down for long enough to finish the job.

Adames: ‘He was just in the ring to survive’

Adames wasn’t impressed by his opponent’s approach. “I think he was just in the ring to survive, he wasn’t really here to win the fight,” he said afterwards.

He then turned his attention to the rest of the division. “I could say I could fight whoever I want. But the real question is who wants to fight Carlos Adames?”

What it means for Warburton

Warburton came in at 18-2-2 with only two knockouts. The 31-year-old southpaw from North Wales was given the biggest chance of his career. You can read more about his journey in our profile, who is Gerome Warburton.

He didn’t win a round on one judge’s card, and he rarely let his hands go. But he absorbed Adames’ body attack and was still standing after 10 rounds against a world champion.

Adames moves to 26-1-1 and can now return to middleweight, where his WBC belt is waiting. As he said himself, the question is whether the big names want to share a ring with him.

The full card is in our Adames vs Warburton fight guide. For more results and upcoming fights, visit our boxing hub.