I don't see many people mention Bones Adams. What's the general opinion on the underrated Bones Adams? How good was he and could he have been even better had he been properly managed? He's mostly known for his close losses to Paulie Ayala but he's shown to be a very skillful operator, as shown in his great performance in his upset win over Nestor Garza. He also challenged Orlando Canizales at the age of 18 and actually did very well and made the fight close before getting stopped due to a broken jaw. Very talented fighter but was also very unlucky with how his career unfolded.
Here’s his performance against Garza, showing wonderful boxing skills and movement. This content is protected
My very good friend trained Nestor- he is the very first person you see at the start of the video, clapping his hands. I asked him about that fight, because it was an upset at the time. He told me that the training camp went great everyone had a lot of fun, but he couldn't answer for Nestor because nobody knew where he was for the first 6 weeks. He showed up for 10 days before the fight. I always liked Bones, loved watching him when he was 15, 16. He was outclassed against Canizales but fought his heart out and kept himself together when it looked, early in the fight, like he might come unraveled. He caught some bad luck with those very significant shoulder injuries and, in my opinion, he could have achieved much more had he stayed healthy. At the time I was glad that he won a title, still am. He comes up on my Facebook "people you may know" because we have many friends in common. Someday I would like to meet him.
I looked bones adams up pretty recently. I had seen him fight when I was 14 in 2000 or so and was impressed with him. I wondered how his career had panned out. He seemed like one of those guys that had the tangibles to scrape the mainstream but for whatever reason didn't become a household name.
I always liked Bones. I thought he beat Ayala both times. Come to think of it I feel Ayala got more gift decisions than just about anyone I can remember. Bones was a well schooled operator and a nice guy to boot.
The stellar boxing writer Charles Farrell said that 'Bones Adams was the most gifted fighter I ever saw.' Charles was talking about Bones before the shoulder injuries which definitely diminished his power. A lot was expected of Adams - he was under the same management as James Toney early on and Toney told me that Adams was seen as 'the star'. As a young guy from a really rough background, Adams probably made some lifestyle decisions that I imagine he'd like to take back. Still, he had great technique and a lot of heart. Underrated for sure.
Surprised that he isn't talked about as much here. Always loved watching his style, very old school and sublime. He now works as a trainer from what I have seen on his IG account.