Key points:
- The WBC has ordered Carlos Adames to face Meiirim Nursultanov next for the full middleweight title
- Nursultanov was originally scheduled to fight Jesus Ramos Jr. before Ramos was hospitalised and withdrew
- A purse bid is scheduled for October 20 if the two camps can’t agree terms
- Ramos keeps his claim to the eventual winner, but the wait could now stretch well into next year
Meiirim Nursultanov turned up ready to fight for an interim belt on Saturday. Instead, he’s going straight for the real thing.
The WBC has ordered Carlos Adames to face him next for the full middleweight title, journalist Dan Rafael reported Tuesday, with a purse bid set for October 20 if the sides can’t agree terms privately. If they do, the winner still owes Jesus Ramos Jr. a fight – Ramos was meant to face Nursultanov on Saturday’s card before he was hospitalised with what PBC described as food poisoning and had to withdraw.
A genuinely good deal for Nursultanov out of somebody else’s bad luck
He gets to skip the interim step entirely and go straight for Adames’s full title, no Ramos fight standing between him and the opportunity he’s waited on for years.
Adames didn’t ask for this one either
He’d already called out Janibek Alimkhanuly and Osleys Iglesias looking for a bigger name, and got nowhere with either. Now he’s got Nursultanov – a grinding, heavy-handed Kazakh with the amateur pedigree to make every round miserable, and next to no crossover appeal if Adames actually gets through him.
Where that leaves Ramos
Still holding his ticket to the winner. Just further back in the queue than he was a week ago, watching two other men fight for the title he was supposed to be chasing himself.