Boxing
Carlos Adames Set for Zuffa Debut Against Gerome Warburton on November 14
The Riyadh contest is scheduled for ten rounds at 165 pounds. Adames’s WBC middleweight belt will not be contested.
Carlos Adames is scheduled to make his Zuffa Boxing debut against Gerome Warburton on November 14 at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in a ten-round bout contracted at 165 pounds.
The matchup is a non-title contest, BoxingScene reported Friday. Adames remains WBC middleweight champion, but Warburton is not challenging for that belt in this fight. The agreed weight is above the 160-pound championship division.
Adames officially signed a multi-fight promotional contract with Zuffa earlier in October. In its separate account of that signing, BoxingScene traced his championship path from an October 2022 interim-title knockout of Juan Macías Montiel through a June 2023 defense against Julian Williams.
He became full WBC champion in May 2024 after Jermall Charlo was designated champion in recess, then defended against Terrell Gausha the following month. A February 2025 split draw against Hamzah Sheeraz preceded his March 2026 decision victory over Austin Williams.
His current record is 25–1–1 with 18 knockout wins. The separate fighter database lists 27 professional bouts and 151 rounds, with Adames now 32. The Dominican boxer is based in Las Vegas and fights from an orthodox stance.
Warburton enters at 18–2–2 with two knockouts, according to Friday’s matchup report. The Welshman lost a 2025 British and Commonwealth title challenge to Kieron Conway by fourth-round stoppage before recording consecutive decision wins over Nathan Heaney this year.
The WBC’s earlier permission for Adames to take an above-limit non-title fight carried conditions. BoxingScene’s October 14 report said a defeat would leave his middleweight championship vacant; a victory would require a subsequent defense against mandatory challenger Meiirim Nursultanov.
That separates the immediate assignment from the championship obligations that follow. Adames’s first Zuffa appearance has an opponent, location, date and contracted weight, while Warburton cannot win the WBC belt from him in this non-title contest.
