LAS VEGAS — Brandon Adams appreciates that Serhii Bohachuk’s handlers even called him about a rematch a couple months ago.

Bohachuk’s career took off after Adams knocked him out in March 2021. Mostly inactive, Adams remained on the fringes of contending in the junior middleweight division. Ukraine’s Bohachuk won the WBC interim super welterweight title, participated in a “Fight of the Year” candidate versus Vergil Ortiz and was in position to land another title shot.

Bohachuk couldn’t secure a rematch with Ortiz or a fight with WBC champ Sebastian Fundora, so his handlers arranged for him to avenge the first of his two professional defeats on a huge stage Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium. For Adams, a rematch provided a much-needed chance to not only show why he is better than Bohachuk, but that he is one of the top 154-pound fighters in the sport.

Adams, 36, acted accordingly by beating Bohachuk impressively on the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford undercard. His unanimous points win in a fan-friendly fight thrust Adams (26-4, 16 KOs) back into the spotlight and proved, once and for all, that he didn’t merely land a lucky punch in their first fight.

“I don’t think Bohachuk wanna run it back again, not with me,” Adams said during his post-fight press conference. “The first time we fought, if there was ever a fluke, then that was the fluke. But tonight, I’m sure him and his team, the world knows that ain’t no fluke over here. I appreciate Bohachuk’s team for calling me for the rematch because I know he’s a fighter, but I didn’t think that I was gonna get it because he knew. He felt me hit him the first fight.”

Adams trailed on all three scorecards — 69-63, 68-64 and 68-64 — when his left hook dropped and stopped Bohachuk late in the eighth round 4½ years ago in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

Bohachuk (26-3, 24 KOs) stayed on his feet throughout their 10-round rematch, but Adams controlled the action from beginning to end. Judges Eric Cheek (99-91), Glenn Feldman (98-92) and Patricia Morse Jarman (98-92) all scored at least eight rounds for Adams, of Whittier, California.

Bohachuk entered the ring as more than a 4-1 favorite, in part because Adams lost a 10-round split decision to Greek prospect Andreas Katzourakis (then 14-0) in his previous fight November 22 in Atlanta. A determined Adams rarely took a backward step, though, and beat a vaunted volume puncher at his own game by continuously banging away at his head and body from a close distance.

Adams was completely committed to brutalizing Bohachuk’s body, which slowed him down.

“I knew that I could fight better on the inside than he could,” Adams said. “But as the fight was progressing, I recognized and noticed what he was doing was a lotta similarities of the last fight, but [Saturday night] we wasn’t slipping [on a slick canvas]. So, I knew if I could land punches on him, even from the first fight, that I would hurt him. I’m sure you could hear for the most part when I was hitting him the way it sounded when I was landing.

“I knew eventually I was gonna completely break him down and neutralize what he was gonna be doing. So I knew that he was gonna try his best to survive. And he was doing a lotta survival tactics and trying to still execute his game plan as well. I took what he gave. ... I just kept polishing it and getting much better at neutralizing him and doing what I need to do to get the victory.”