Julio beats defensive-minded Adjaho
NEWARK -- After spending five years fighting bigger men as a light middleweight, Colombia's Joel Julio returned to the welterweight division to win a lopsided, unanimous 10-round decision over Anges Adjaho on ESPN's "Friday Night Fights'' at the Prudential Center. But while Julio never was in danger, it still seemed his opponent was the stronger man.
Julio won by a 99-91 margin on the official cards and on Newsday's card, but Adjaho's reluctance to come out of his shell long enough to engage in combat had as much to do with the one-sided scoring as anything Julio did.
"I knew he would be defensive all the time," Julio said. "I kept working and put my punches together, but I felt my inactivity. I've been out of the ring for eight months. I need to stay busy.''
From the start, Adjaho (17-6, 9 KOs) continually circled to his left and played defense while Julio (37-4, 31 KOs) stalked and fired jabs and combinations. In the third round, Adjaho momentarily planted himself and pressed an effective body attack. Julio handled it and gave it back, so Adjaho went back on the defensive.
Finally, in the ninth, Adjaho used his reach to pepper Julio with stiff jabs at will, and toward the end of the round, he dropped a couple of righthand bombs on Julio's head. Had Adjaho fought that way the whole night, it would have been a competitive fight, but he was content to survive.
"If he had fought me, I would have knocked him out early,'' Julio said. But he added, "[Adjaho] was definitely a strong guy. I listened to my corner to keep moving my head. I need more work in the gym, but this definitely helps. I'm happy.''
On the undercard, Brooklyn's Sadam Ali (13-0, 7 KOs) remained undefeated with a unanimous eight-round decision over John Revish (9-4-2, 8 KOs) of Baton Rouge, La. Ali took charge early with an effective left hand he used to floor Revish in the second round, but the bout was interrupted two seconds into the fifth round by a blackout.
After a 15-minute delay to fix the lights, Ali continued to rely on the left, peppering Revish with jabs, hooks and uppercuts. But with 1:50 left in the final round, Revish landed a crushing left-right combination that had Ali staggering. He weathered the storm to win 79-72 on the official cards and 78-73 on Newsday's card.
More boxing news
