Carlos Adames Kayoes Montiel Easily

After a slow start, Carlos Adames let his hands fly in the third round to notch an impressive knockout of the usually durable Juan Macias Montiel to win the vacant WBC interim middleweight title in the co-feature of the Showtime Boxing card in Carson, CA, Saturday night.

Adames rocked Montiel in round 3 to score a TKO victory 😮#AdamesMontiel #FundoraOcampo | @CarlosA20445906 pic.twitter.com/yIScbFLmmI

— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) October 9, 2022

The interim 160-pound belt was available while full titleholder Jermall Charlo, whose last fight in June 2021 was a one-sided decision over Montiel, has been recovering from a back injury.

Adames (22-1, 17 KOs), 28, of the Dominican Republic, was far more impressive than Charlo was against Montiel (23-6-2, 23 KOs), 28, of Mexico.

“I think I’m No. 1 (at middleweight) and let’s hope the big names of the division have the courage to face me now,” Adames said through an interpreter.

Very little happened in the opening round, the fight picked up a bit in the second round and by the third round Adames was going right at Montiel and nailing him with clean shots.

Montiel made the critical mistake of standing in front of Adames, who switched from right-handed to a southpaw stance and displayed a very damaging right hook.

He nailed Montiel with one that badly rocked him and was the beginning of the end. With Montiel staggered from the shot, Adames forced him to the ropes and landed a few more shots, which prompted referee Ray Corona to stop the bout at 2 minutes, 37 seconds.

In less than three full rounds, Adames landed 47 of 90 power punches (52 percent) — anything other than a jab — according to CompuBox.

Adames had fought for an interim title once before, losing a close decision to Patrick Teixeira for the vacant WBO interim junior middleweight belt in 2019. Adames fought once more at junior middleweight and then moved up to middleweight, where in his previous bout he won a 10-round decision over former three-time title challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko in December for his third win in a row and set him up for the fight with Montiel.

Montiel said Adames hit him low but made no excuses in defeat.

“He was better than me and I lost,” Montiel said through an interpreter. “The low blows were what they were, low blows, and I made sure I made myself heard about that. I’m gonna recover from this and gone back better and stronger. The people in Mexico should know that.”