By Keith Idec

Jermall Charlo has taken notice of all the upsets that have occurred in boxing already this year.

Mindful of not falling into the traps that distract heavy favorites, the WBC interim middleweight champion is determined to prevent Brandon Adams from joining Andrew Cancio, Julian Williams, Jamel Herring and Andy Ruiz Jr. on a list of sizeable underdogs who’ve won world title fights in 2019. The 29-year-old Charlo (28-0, 21 KOs) is scheduled to defend his crown against Adams in the main event of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” tripleheader Saturday night at NRG Arena in Houston, Charlo’s hometown.

“I’m just motivated by those guys who don’t finish the job,” Charlo said during a conference call Tuesday. “This is a legacy fight for me, the best I’ve felt in a long time. My career is definitely where it needs to be. The pressure’s definitely on me. I can’t let anybody down. And it’s just one of those fights where it’s much needed, with another hungry opponent. Everyone who has doubted me and everyone who is not on the side of me, it makes me wanna fight even harder. It’s just one of those things I have to go through.”

Los Angeles’ Adams (21-2, 13 KOs) is considered such a huge underdog versus Charlo, most Internet and Las Vegas sports books haven’t even listed odds on their scheduled 12-round, 160-pound championship match.

Adams, also 29, has won four straight fights since John Thompson stopped him in the second round of their May 2015 fight in Corona, California. Each of those four wins were produced as part of the fifth season of “The Contender” reality series, which Adams won by easily beating Shane Mosley Jr. in the 10-round finale November 9 in Inglewood, California.

Charlo is an elite middleweight, though, significantly better than Mosley, Eric Walker, Ievgen Khytrov and Tyrone Brunson.

“I’ll be damned if I let anybody come to my hometown and take something from me,” Charlo said. “So, I hope everyone is prepared.”

Showtime will air two bouts before it televises the Charlo-Adams match.

In the co-featured fight, Erickson Lubin (20-1, 15 KOs), of Orlando, Florida, will face France’s Zakaria Attou (29-6-2, 7 KOs) in a 12-round, 154-pound WBC elimination match. The telecast is set to start at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT with a 12-round WBA featherweight eliminator between the Dominican Republic’s Claudio Marrero (23-3, 17 KOs) and Mexico’s Eduardo Ramirez (22-1-3, 9 KOs). 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.