Carlos Adames admonished Janibek Alimkhanuly for the failed performance-enhancing drug test that cost his close friend, Erislandy Lara, a middleweight title unification fight last month.

As suspicious as it made him of Alimkhanuly, the unbeaten IBF/WBO 160-pound champion’s PED ordeal still wouldn’t prohibit Adames from accepting his own fight with the Kazakhstan native. In fact, Adames would welcome his own championship unification clash against Alimkhanuly next if the Dominican champion defeats American Austin “Ammo” Williams in their fight for the WBC middleweight title Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“We need to wait,” Adames told The Ring. “Maybe he will pay for using PEDs. But the way I think of my rivalry with Janibek, it is more personal. It was more heated than between Lara and him. So, if you ask me if I would like to fight him at any point, I can say yes.

“The PEDs don’t matter because I really wanna test myself with Janibek in the ring. And the PEDs, for whatever reason it happened, it don’t guarantee he will beat me. So, if I have a chance to fight him at any point before we finish our careers, yes, I wanna fight Janibek.”

Alimkhanuly tested positive for Meldonium, which improves endurance and aids recovery, in a test administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association before he was set to battle Lara on the Isaac Cruz-Lamont Roach undercard December 6 in San Antonio. Alimkhanuly professed his innocence and asked to have his B sample examined after he was removed from the bout, but the results of that test haven’t been revealed.

Adames understands why Lara wasn’t allowed to face Alimkhanuly. The fighter in him nevertheless would’ve wanted to move forward if he were the one who was scheduled to box the compromised champion.

“PEDs won’t totally guarantee you will be the winner,” Adames said. “So, if that’s my situation, if they ask me, ‘Hey, Janibek has an issue with PEDs. Are you open to fight him no matter what?’ ... I would continue with the fight.’”

Cuba’s Lara (32-3-3, 19 KOs) defeated late replacement Johan Gonzalez (36-5, 34 KOs). Lara dropped the powerful Venezuelan veteran once apiece in the first and 12th rounds and won by huge margins on the cards (120-106, 119-107, 118-108).

Beating Gonzalez at least spared Lara the frustration of wasting an entire training camp. Alimkhanuly’s predicament prevented the 42-year-old from fighting for two more middleweight titles, though, in what would’ve been a much more meaningful fight for the WBA champ.

“I feel bad for my friend Lara because Janibek is playing dirty,” Adames said. “He’s a cheater, a dirty guy. I definitely feel bad for [Alimkhanuly] because he already had an advantage in age with Lara because Lara is older. He still used PEDs. He wanted an advantage with [PEDs]. I feel bad for my friend because he spent all that time training to make that title unification fight happen. Janibek was a liar to us and a liar to the sport.”

Representatives for Adames and Alimkhanuly negotiated for them to meet December 6 before Lara’s handlers accepted the fight instead.

Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs) is a 4-1 favorite over Williams (19-1, 13 KOs), the WBC’s No. 6 contender. The Ring ranks Adames No. 1 among its contenders for a vacant title, seven spots above Williams.

Adames and Williams will be part of “The Ring 6” pay-per-view undercard before Ring/WBO junior welterweight champ Teofimo Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) faces WBC lightweight champ Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) in a 140-pound main event.