At the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ Golden Boy Promotions alongside R&R Promotions featured boxing’s best young talent take another step towards greatness. That boxer’s name is Adrien Broner (25-0, 21 KO’s, 134lbs), and on Saturday night he squared off against the rugged former world champion, Gavin Rees (37-1-1, 134 1/2lbs). Broner has remained undefeated by blending his amazing speed with raw power …. And of course a pinch of flash to go along. Rees came out swinging to start the bout. The smaller of the two fighters, Rees put his head down and charged in while taking head snapping blows right on the chin. His aggression might have won him that first round, but Broner was extremely efficient with his punches and was landing at a higher rate as the bout progressed.
Broner’s amazing ability drew “ohhs” and “ahhs” from the crowd, and Rees toughness and strong will drew cheers from his supporters. Entering the fourth round, the fight was already very entertaining, but Broner was completely in control. In a flash, a right uppercut landed clear on Rees’ chin, sending him crashing onto his back. With the crowd in a frenzy, Broner felt it necessary to break into a dance.
Rees made it out of the round, and seemed fairly competent in the fifth round until a vicious shot to the body sent him to his knees. It was a beautiful punch on the inside that was timed to absolute perfection. Rees, beat the count, but was in a difficult position. Broner proved that he could hurt Rees to the head and body. Rees had to make a decision as to how high or low he should place his guard; to protect his body or head? He decided to go with what probably hurt the most at that moment; his body. Broner capitalized by landing numerous punches upstairs. He was looking to close the show. Rees’ corner understood this, and his trainer wisely threw in the towel to spare his fighter more punishment. Adrien Broner won by TKO at 2:59 of the 5th round.
In an exciting clash of styles, Sakio Bika (30-5, 21 KO’s, 167 1/2lbs) squared off against the relatively unknown Nikola Sjekloca (25-0, 7 KO’s, 167 1/2lbs). Bika took control of the action quickly. Sjekloca possessed the typical European rigid style. Standing upright and moving straight backwards and side to side. While that works for some, it was not cutting it for Sjekloca. Bika’s awkward style gave his opponent fits while giving himself angles to land multiple combinations. After the first few rounds of the fight, many in attendance felt that Bika could win by knockout. Like flicking a switch Sjekloca got into his groove by the middle rounds. It was still clearly Bika’s fight, but Sjekloca now made it competitive. He was often able to time Bika’s unorthodox upper body movement with his right hand, and he certainly earned Bika’s respect during those middle rounds. Still, Bika managed to kit it up into another gear by the late rounds and essentially shut down whatever abilities Sjekloca possessed. The bout made it’s way to the scorecards and they read 119-109, 118-112, and 120-108 all in favor of Bika for a unanimous decision victory. He is now the WBC mandatory for Andre Ward’s title.
Demetrius Hopkins (32-2-1, 13 KO’s, 152 1/2lbs) came out to a throng of cheers when he took to the ring against Charles Whitaker (39-13-2, 23 KO’s, 154lbs) for the USBA light middleweight title. Those cheers quickly turned to boos as the action was anything but exciting. Hopkins has always been a methodical fighter, so the pace wasn’t unexpected for those in attendance. Whitaker, the bigger of the two fighters had very little desire to engage Hopkins, and this made for a very boring few rounds. After a round of boos, Hopkins lulled Whitaker into backing straight back into the ropes, and unleashed a solid overhand right that sent Whitaker down. This made things more interesting, but whatever little desire Whitaker had of throwing punches was immediately thrown out the window after the knockdown. Hopkins just continuously stalked his opponent and landed his right hand whenever he managed to get Whitaker to stop back pedaling. At the end of the sixth round, as Whitaker was hearing more boos from the crowd, he complained of loss of vision in his left eye. His corner was forced to stop the bout. The ruling was that Hopkins won by TKO at 3:00 of the sixth round.
The once rising star, Vincente Escobedo (25-5, 15 KO’s, 129 1/2lbs) took the ring for a comeback fight after losing to Adrien Broner last summer. His opponent was the battle tested Edner Cherry (30-6-2, 17 KO’s, 129 1/2lbs). He made a bad mistake. Cherry just simply out-hustled Escobedo from the get-go; putting in most of his work to the body, which completely opened Escobedo up for punches upstairs. Cherry’s work rate kept Escobedo off balance throughout most of the night and it prevented Escobedo from getting a rhythm. The second round saw Cherry floor his opponent, and it was more of the same from there on out. By the sixth round, Escobedo seemed completely spent, and a big hook sent him crashing down onto the canvas. Escobedo barely made it to his feet, and the referee allowed the fight to continue. Cherry, on the other hand was aware that time was running out on the round, and stormed right in once both fighters were cleared to box. More hooks came in and Escobedo went down again just as the bell to end the round. Referee Allan Huggins wisely stopped the bout right then and there, giving Cherry a TKO victory at 3:00 of the sixth round. Escobedo was once considered to be the top prospect in boxing. It seems unlikely that he will ever become a player at 130lbs or any other weight for that matter.
Former Olympian Rau’Shee Warren (2-0, 0KO’s, 116 1/2lbs) made easy work of Richard Hernandez (0-5, 0 KO’s, 115 1/2lbs) en route to a TKO victory. Warren, a friend and training partner of Broner, was just too fast, too strong, and just flat out too good for Hernandez. After a dominant first round, Warren kicked it into a higher gear in the second, scoring two knockdowns that prompted Hernandez’ corner to throw in the towel to spare him any further embarrassment and pain. Warren won by TKO at 2:04 of the second round.
In an anti-climactic fight, Robert Easter Jr. (2-0, 2 KOs, 133lbs) opened up a cut over the right eye of Jose Valderrama (2-3, 2 KOs, 135lbs). Easter was dominating the first round when the cut occurred. Valderrama was visibly distracted by the bleeding and placement of the cut. Nobody seemed surprised when the ringside physician advised the referee to stop the bout. Easter was credited with a first round TKO at the 3:00 point of the first.
Another Olympian, Jamel Herring (1-0, 1 KO, 134 1/2lbs) boxed beautifully against the outmatched Carlos Lopez (4-2, 0KO’s 137lbs). After a three-round beat down, the bout was called at the 3:00 point of the third round, giving Herring a TKO victory.
ADRIEN BRONER VS. GAVIN REES POST-FIGHT QUOTES
ADRIEN BRONER, WBC Lightweight World Champion
“I knew he [Rees] was going to come to fight. He’s a world-class fighter.
“He [Rees] kept coming. He threw every shot like it was his best shot. I knew he would hang.
“When you have two world-class fighters going toe-to-toe, it’s going to be a great fight.
“Thanks to everyone who came out. It’s [NBA] All-Star Weekend and you came to see an All-Star.
“He’s [Rees] tougher than a steak that’s been well done.
“If I fought Ricky Burns, he would get burnt out. I want to fight him, but if he doesn’t want to fight me. Oh well.
“There are high expectations for me to take boxing over after [Floyd] Mayweather and [Manny] Pacquiao hang up their gloves.
“Tonight was a nice fight. I have to go back and watch it. Overall I felt pretty. I just looked in the mirror and I still look good.
“I would fight 10 times a year if I could.”
GAVIN REES, Former World Champion
“He’s [Broner] the best I have ever been in [the ring] with. It’s not a case of whether he will go on to be a super star… he is already there.
“I made a lot of mistakes and I believe I have a better skill set than that.
“I knew he [Broner] hit hard, but his power just stunned me. I got reckless and that was the end of the night, but I was always going to get back up.
“I would have gone on until I was knocked out cold. I disagree with Gary pulling me out, but he knows that I would have gotten hurt. We are good friends and he was just looking out for me.”
MIKE STAFFORD, Broner’s Trainer
“We knew Gavin was going to come in [to fight]. I wanted Adrien to take his time and pick his punches.
“He made mistakes and Adrien countered each mistake he made.
“Gavin was a great fighter for two rounds. I knew he was going to try his best to take Adrien out and Adrien capitalized on his mistakes and picked him apart.
“Believe it or not, you haven’t seen the whole package deal. It’s a secret that we behold in the gym.”
GARY LOCKETT, Rees’ Trainer
“I was going to pull him out in the fourth. I considered pulling him out after the third, but I knew he would say ‘there is no way.'”
