Joseph Adorno is ready for revenge—though still not at the point where he’s willing to publicly accept blame.
Through a decision supported only by his immediate team, the unbeaten lightweight prospect took to Instagram Live to plead his case after being removed from Tuesday’s edition of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN live from MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas. Adorno was due to face Alexis del Bosque in a televised preliminary, only to have to bow out after missing weight by one full pound on Monday and then never making it to the scale for an agreed-upon same day weigh-in hours before the fight.
“We were told we couldn’t eat and that we could only gain four pounds in 25 hours,” Adorno (14-0-1, 12KOs) claimed Monday evening in a since-removed Instagram Live video shortly after Tuesday’s telecast. “We had to come back 25 hours later and weigh 140 (pounds).”
The show went on with the remaining four fights on the schedule, topped by Joshua Franco’s upset 12-round win over previously unbeaten Andrew Moloney to win a secondary version of the junior bantamweight title.
Adorno weighed 136 pounds at Monday’s official weigh-in, one full pound over the contracted 135-pound limit. Dallas’ del Bosque (17-5, 9KOs) easily made weight, coming in at 134.2 pounds. Initially, Adorno—in accordance with Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) rules—was to have been given one hour to shed the excess weight.
Reportedly, his weakened state was enough of a deterrent for the onsite physician to deem him too unhealthy to attempt to do so. The fight was then renegotiated, with an agreement in place that Adorno would return to the scales at 1:00 p.m. local time. Despite his insistence of a 140-pound limit, BoxingScene.com has been informed by at least four respected sources with knowledge of the situation that the limit was 142 pounds.
Adorno never made it to the scale for the same-day weigh-in, although the reasons vary as to the cause.
Event officials informed BoxingScene.com senior writer that Adorno became ill and was unable to comply with the revised terms, thus pulled from the card. As much was reported on site by ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna, although the claim was disputed by the 21-year old Boricua prospect.
“I am not sick, Adorno claimed in a post on his Instagram story. “These news saying fake sh-t.”
Whatever the case, the lightweight missed out on a chance to appear live on ESPN following a career relegated to ESPN+ streamed undercard bouts. His last such occasion also featured his struggling at the scale, needing two tries to make weight for his eventual eight-round draw with Mexican clubfighter Hector Garcia this past January in Atlantic City, roughly two hours from his hometown of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Unable to make weight this time around, Adorno was under the impression that such matters were resolved through renegotiated terms. The boxer—who was joined by his uncle and team member, Ramon Zavala on the IG Live session—claimed that an agreement was in place to proceed with the fight under their original weights.
"We already paid you for the pound,” Adorno alleged. “He did all this sh-t for one pound, bro. We gave him five racks and that still wasn’t good enough. He wanted us to come back at 140.”
The $5,000 payment in question is consistent with the fine based on a percentage of the fighter’s purse, levied by any commission for failure to honor the terms of the originally filed contract.
Nevertheless, being left in Vegas without a payday only further infuriated Adorno. According his camp, plans are in place to get him back in the ring as early as July 9—though such a claim has yet to be validated by the Top Rank promotional team.
Whether the date holds true or any other is offered, his one wish is to once again have del Bosque assigned to man the opposite corner.
“I hope it’s the same opponent [next time]. This n---a gonna pay for what he did,” insists Adorno. I had to take time away from being with my [newborn] kid. I was with my kid. I left my kid (for this fight).
“When we see him in person, we’re about to smack these n---as up.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
