38 year old Nicholas Walters, AKA “The Axe Man,” scored the biggest win of his career in almost ten years last night, this as he won a ten round UD over the much younger and favoured Joseph Adorno at lightweight. Fighting in Florida on a ProBox card, Jamaica’s former WBA featherweight champ Walters simply outworked his 24 year old opponent and he was awarded accordingly, the judges handing in scores of 98-91, 97-92, and a far too close 95-94, all cards in favour of Walters.
Walters, who has now boxed just twice since 2016 (Walters won an eight round UD over Luis Diaz Marmol in February of last year in his first comeback fight), is now 29-1(22). Adorno, known as “Blessed Hands,” falls to 18-4-2(15) and the man from Allentown will no doubt be kicking himself for not having worked harder in the fight.
Walters controlled much of the action with his jab, while his body attack served him well also. Adorno rocked Walters in round six, this with a right to the head, but he failed to capitalise. Adorno was docked a point for hitting after the bell in the ninth round.
A very good win for Walters, and fans who love to see a successful comeback (and who doesn’t enjoy a great comeback?) will be interested to see how far the former champ, who has only been beaten by Vasiliy Lomachenko, can go at this stage of his life and career. Back in his prime, Walters was known as one of the hardest-hitting featherweights out there, with Walters scoring two very impressive knockout wins in 2014, these over Vic Darchinyan (KO5) and Nonito Donaire (TKO6).
It’s unlikely Walters will ever get back to that kind of form, but he showed last night that he’s still got a fair bit to offer. There could prove to be some interesting fights at 135 pounds for Walters over the coming months, or perhaps even over the next couple of years.