Broner Stops Rees in 5 That Was Short but Sweet! - Doghouse Boxing News
Broner Stops Rees in 5 That Was Short but Sweet! By Ken Hissner at ringside, Doghouse Boxing (Feb 18, 2013) Doghouse Boxing
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This writer called it a “show saver” Saturday night at the Boardwalk
Hall in Atlantic City, NJ. Unbeaten WBC lightweight champion Adrien
“The Problem” Broner, 26-0 (22), of Cincinnati, OH, and Gavin “The Rock”
Rees, 37-2-1 (19), of Newport, WAL, gave the over 4,000 fans something
to cheer about for 5 rounds with Broner successfully defending his title
at 2:59 of the 5th round. “I knew he was coming to fight. He’s a
world class fighter,” said Broner. Rees is the former WBA 140 champion
now holding the British and European titles.
In the second
round Broner wound up his right hand and flicked it in the face of
Rees. Rees came right back with a left hook to the body. He was not to
be outdone early in the fight. Looking much smaller, Rees got as low
as he could to the canvas avoiding most of the lightning punches from
Broner for the most part. In the third round Broner rocked Rees who did
his thing and opened up on Broner. Suddenly Broner landed 6 unanswered
punches of his own. He was always in command even on the defense. “I
made too many mistakes tonight and he capitalized on them. He is the
best I have ever met,” said Rees.
In the fourth round Rees
landed 3 left hooks to the body of Broner before a right uppercut
dropped Rees for the first knockdown. In the fifth a Broner left hook
that was borderline dropped Rees. Upon rising Rees fought back with the
heart of a lion until Broner opened up on Rees in a neutral corner
until the Rees corner through in the towel. Referee Earl Brown then
waved it off as the bell was sounding. Both fighters put on a fine
exhibition. Why Rees ranked No. 2 in the WBA that has a vacant spot at
champion took this fight as the No. 15 WBC contender must have been
about money.
Ree’s trainer Gary Lockett considered
stopping it after 3 but knew Rees would have none of it. When Broner
moves up and takes a 140 title Rees will be ready to capture a 135
title. Broner the surer bet of the two who has a tremendous future
ahead of him at age 23 having won titles in 2 divisions. Every time a
135-140 boxer with potential comes out of Cincinnati they are compared
to the Hall of Fame boxer Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor. Broner is possibly
the best to have a chance someday to meet those expectations.
Up
until the seventh and final fight of the night Golden Boy Promotions
East had 3 former Olympians just starting their professional careers
against the usual suspects falling like intended. Then the upset of the
night as Edner “Cherry Bomb” Cherry, 31-6-2 (17), Wauchula, FL, stopped
former Olympian Vicente Escobedo, 26-4 (15), of Woodland, CA, at the
end of 6 rounds in a junior lightweight 10. The once touted De LaHoya
look alike in Escobedo who outside of a good jab had little else to
offer as Cherry dropped the right hand “cherry bombs” one after another
10 seconds shy of the end of the second round. Escobedo beat the count
seconds before the bell sounded.
In the sixth round
Escobedo took a beating and his corner would not let him out. He took a
devastating knockdown just prior to the bell ending the sixth and was
in no shape to continue. Referee Allan Huggins should have stopped it
then.
Cherry hadn’t lost in 7 fights since 2008 when he
lost trying to capture the WBC lightweight title from then champion
Timothy Bradley. Escobedo’s last fight was in July of 2012 when he was
stopped by Broner in 5 rounds but couldn’t make the 130 limit so he was
forced to give up the title.
The “sleeper” of the night
over 12 rounds for the WBC Super middleweight title eliminator had Sako
“The Scorpion” Bika, 31-5-1 (21), of Sydney, AUS, pounding out a solid
decision over the No. 1 WBC contender Nikola Sjekloca, 25-1 (7), of
Budva, MON. One had to wonder who he beat to “earn” that spot. He was
completely outclassed and Bika is obviously past his prime. It was a
ho-hum fight that had the crowd letting the fighters know they did not
appreciate the lack of action. Ricky Vera was the referee. Judges
Lynne Carter, 119-109, Guido Cavalleri, 118-112 and Alan Rubenstein,
120-108 were in favor of Bika. Either the scores of Carter of
Rubenstein could have told the story. Bika outlanded his opponent
315-137 with a power punch advantage of 145-67. David Fields was the
referee.
Now Bika earns another shot at champion Andre
Ward who beat Bika 10-12 out of 12 rounds in November of 2010. Does a
rematch seem warranted?
For the 39 year old Charles
Whitaker, 39-14-2 (23), now out of Miami, FL, he looked his age as he
quit at the end of the sixth round to Philadelphia’s Demetrius “The
Gladiator” Hopkins, 33-2-1 (13), for the USBA junior middleweight
title. Whitaker had double vision in his left eye from all the right
hands Hopkins was landing scoring one knockdown. The fans were unaware
of the injury and soundly booed Whitaker from the ring to the dressing
room. This was not the same Whitaker who fought Gabe Rosado in December
and might think about calling it a day.
There’s little to
say about the opening 3 bouts all won by US Olympians. Junior
welterweight Southpaw Jamel Herring, 2-0 (1), of Coram, NY, stopped
Carlos Lopez, 4-3 (0), of San Juan, PR, when the ringside physician
wisely informed referee Sammy Viruet to stop the fight at the end of the
third round.
Lightweight Robert Easter, Jr., 3-0
(3), of Toledo, OH, stopped Jose Valderrama, 3-4 (3), of Manati, PR, who
sat on his stool with a bad cut over his left eye at the end of the
second round and refused to come out. In the third bout of the evening
3-time Olympian Rau’Shee “Baby Face” Warren, 3-0 (1), of Cincinnati,
OH, somehow got approval to fight Richard Hernandez, 0-6, of Lockhart,
TX, in the bantamweight division. He only needed 2:04 of the second
round after scoring 2 knockdowns before the towel was thrown in to show
the fans what the future holds in store for him if he can stay on the
straight and narrow outside of the ring.
This writer is
definitely against top amateurs turning professional defeating little to
no opposition especially when there are 3 on the same card. The fans
deserve better. They defeat fighters with over 100 fights and are
scheduled against fighters with less than 10 and usually with losing
records though this card had 2 out of 3 with non-losing records. The
results are always the same. Sammy Viruet did the refereeing for these 3
bouts. The HBO show went into midnight with the Bika fight starting
after 10. Long and late night for the fans and a writer who drove over 2
hours afterwards with 2 other writers. In contrast of one another the
younger writer loved the show, while the other writer, old like this
one, liked the Bika performance and you just read what this writer
thought
.
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