Cajun Bull enjoying 2-0 start to pro career; looking for more

Larose native Casey Adams stood upright and stared right into the eyes of his opponent, Ivory Joyner, before hitting him flush on the chin with a firm right hook.

The 152-pound welterweight continued to juke and jive around the ring, landing a vast array of right and left hands, while also waiting for that one big opening, that one chance to take the fight out of the judges’ hands and to walk away a guaranteed winner.

“I wanted to knock him out and finish it in the first round,” Adams said. “That’s really what I was trying to do.”

Adams didn’t achieve that goal, as Joyner survived an early onslaught by the Larose native and made it to the second round.

When the bell sounded, Adams flipped the switch to ‘off’ and sat down in his corner and looked across the ring of a packed Sigur Center in Chalmette.

When he did so, he saw the fatigue and hurt in Joyner’s face from the early beating.

“I had chances to end it in the first round,” Adams said. “He was hurt. I could tell he was hurt.”

That’s all he needed to see. The Cajun Bull was ready to pounce and remain undefeated. When the bell rang again and restarted the fight, he did just that.

Like his nickname indicates, Adams saw red with his opponent fatigued, keeping his momentum and stopping Joyner in the middle part of the second round to earn a knockout win, one that made the once amateur standout 2-0 in the professional ranks and hoping for more as his career continues to blossom.

“I just had my mind set that night and I was just ready to fight,” Adams said. “I just couldn’t lose.”

Adams was born with boxing in his blood.

His father Gerard Adams fought two professional fights and countless others on the amateur level in his 10 years in the sport.

All of Casey’s four brothers fought in the amateur ranks, as well, with his youngest brother Devon also aspiring to be a professional fighter.

But despite growing up in the ring, boxing didn’t necessarily come easy to Casey, who started to fight at age 10.

He said he lost the majority of his first fights as an amateur and a lot of them weren’t that close.

“I lost my first eight fights in a row to start my career as an amateur,” Adams said. “Then I finally won one, but then I lost another good six to eight fights there, again.”

His father, who also serves as Casey’s trainer and coach, said the reason for that was motivation and focus, something his son didn’t have early in his career.

“It didn’t happen for him until he really put his heart into it,” Gerard Adams said. “That was probably when he was about 14-or-15-years-old. That’s when he really started to perform. He was always good. He was always tough. But he just needed to dig a little deeper and put his heart into it.”

When he did that, the losses became wins and Casey realized boxing was something he wanted to do for a living.

That’s when the dream was laid out and placed vividly into his mind. That’s also when he reached the point where he decided he just didn’t like to lose.

The Cajun Bull was officially born.

“I try to be very aggressive,” Adams said. “I try to be as aggressive as I can get. My dad came up with the name. I liked it. It had a ring to it. The more he used it, the more of a ring that came with it. I just couldn’t go wrong with it. I’m a Cajun. And I charge at somebody like a bull. Boxing has fallen off a lot in recent years and I’m one of the few who tries to give the people what they want in the way that I fight. The name just worked.”

With that career plan in focus and the Cajun Bull bucking one opponent after another, Adams rolled through the end of his amateur career with a string of wins capped off by a farewell amateur fight in front of a packed Cut Off Youth Center who gathered mostly in his honor to see him perform.

From there, he moved to the professional ranks and got the ball rolling with a four-round fight against LeKirk Pringle at the Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Adams’ will always remember that night, saying he had knots in his stomach before and even during the fight.

His father agreed and said keeping his son in the right frame of mind was a challenge during their trek to Mississippi.

“The first pro fight, he was so nervous,” Gerard Adams said. “I just tried to keep his mind off of it. I just tried to talk to him and tell him to not really think about it. I told him that it was just like an amateur fight. You’re going into the fight knowing there’s a chance you’re possibly going to lose, but you don’t want to think about a loss. One thing I tried to do was just take Casey’s mind off of things, keep him talking, keep him moving. That’s a tough thing to do, especially when you’re switching in that first fight from amateur boxing.”

But despite battling his anxiousness and Pringle both, Adams won a decision in his debut fight.

Then came the fight against Joyner and things were different.

The Cajun Bull knew what to expect and was unleashed, bringing the pain to Joyner, who himself, was making his professional debut.

“He was really fired up. He kept saying before the fight, ‘Somebody’s going to get hurt tonight,'” Gerard Adams said. “He was so much more relaxed the second fight and so much more calm.”

“I was in the zone,” Casey said. “I just felt no pressure.”

With the win, Adams will look to fight again sometime in late May or early June.

In that fight, the Cajun Bull will be shooting for 3-0.

In the future, Gerard Adams said there’s no limit to how many wins his son might get.

“He’s one that will end up being as good as he wants to be,” the father said. “He has the ability to set his mind to something and do anything he wants to do when he tries to.”

So that raises the question, how good does Adams want to be?

He has a pretty good idea of where he wants to go.

“My dream, and I’m going to try my hardest, it’s to bring a title to the Bayou,” Casey said. “I’m going to try with everything I can to bring a title to the Bayou. I want it. I’m hungry for it. It’s just going to take me some fights and it’s going to take me some time, but I’ve got to get out there, win all of my fights, get me my title shot and the hopefully come away with it. Dreams come true. That’s my dream.”

Local boxer Casey Adams pounds the heavy bag during a practice session. The Larose native is 2-0 in his professional boxing career and said his goal is to be a champion. CASEY GISCLAIR