Williams will meet Adames, in the main event of a Matchroom Boxing card, for his WBC middleweight title on Saturday at Caribe Royale on DAZN (8 p.m. ET). They were originally scheduled to fight on Jan. 31, but Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs) was pulled from the fight by his team due to complications with his weight cut.

The two exchanged words and ratcheted what had been a calm build-up to a 10.

“I said what I had to say because I meant it,” Williams said. “He said he’s a great fighter, he’s got all of this confidence when you pulled out from being sick. How many stories do we hear of real fighters fighting through anything? Injuries, feeling a little sick, all of that.

“Now he’s so tough, it doesn’t mean anything. If y’all have the same energy and y’all want to fight, good, because you’re going to see. Simple as that.”

“It’s very easy to speak when you’re in front of a microphone,” Adames said via translator. “I do my talking in the ring.”

As the press conference reached its latter stages, it turned into a shouting match with both fighters talking over each other. Williams called him soft. Adames responded they could fight right there.

Adames, 31, said he had cramps and was vomiting before he was withdrawn from the fight.

“It was a surprise for me,” Adames said. “It was a surprise to my team. We were 100 percent prepared, but my body wouldn’t respond. We had a good weight cut, things were going well but I wasn’t able to continue. ... It wasn’t due to us disrespecting our opponent.”

“This dude, a day before he pulled out of the fight, was saying easy work, and then the next day he’s so sick he’s got to call 911.” Williams later said. “If you’re that sick, you’re going to be feeling it that same day. ... Just make sure you have the energy to walk to the ring on March 21.”

Adames will enter the fight on a nearly 13-month layoff. He last fought in February 2025 to a controversial split draw against Hamzah Sheeraz in a bout many felt he did more than enough to win. Sheeraz handed Williams his lone loss by 11th-round stoppage in June 2024.

The Elias Pina, Dominican Republic, native will be making his third world title defense.

“There will only be one boxer at the end, and that’s Carlos Adames,” he said.

Williams, 29, will be entering his first world title shot. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native has won four straight since his loss to Sheeraz, with his last two wins coming against late-replacement opponents. Williams (20-1, 13 KOs) also fired back at Adames for criticizing his past performances and others' opinions of them.

“Y’all can talk about any other fight, nothing matters but Saturday night,” Williams said. “You can talk about my fight with this or that person. I’m fighting you, and that’s all that matters.

“You can try to build your confidence from any other event, but this is happening. I’m about to hurt you.”

Williams’ head trainer, Kevin Cunningham, and one of Adames’ coaches, Thomas Dulorme, also joined the trash talk. Cunningham asked if Adames would show up, while Dulorme said he prayed for Williams and that he lucked out with the previously scheduled fight not happening.

“Everything changed once the first fight was cancelled,“ Dulorme said via translator. “Ammo has had his mouth so open since then, and he’s angered the lion that I have alongside me. We feel that things changed once Ammo began to speak ... .You’ve chosen once again to step into hell, and what you’ll get on Saturday night is pure fire.”

“I hope that Adames is ready for a fight, because he's going to have to fight a dog fight. We know what we're here for," Cunningham said. "We're here to take the title. Adames is not going to give his belt away, we gotta take it and that’s what [Williams] is prepared to do."