Broner: I would have had to hurt Rees bad if they didn’t stop the fight

By Boxing News - 02/22/2013 - Comments

broner46By Scott Gilfoid: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) was pleased that Gavin Rees’ trainer Gary Lockett decided to stop the fight last Saturday night after Broner had knocked the Welsh fighter to the canvas in the 5th and was teeing off on him.

Lockett decided he didn’t want to let Broner annihilate the badly hurt Rees, so he threw in the towel to have the fight stopped.

Broner said to ESPN “They stopped it at the right time because I would have had to hurt him bad.”

It’s really good that Lockett stopped the fight. I know a lot of boxing fans thought it was a quick stoppage, and I know some boxing fans wondered if Rees even came to win. I agreed with the move by Lockett because it would have gotten much worse had Rees been able to make it out of that round.

I envisioned a hurt Rees coming out for the 6th, and then getting taken down by a hail of shots from Broner after getting backed to the ropes. It would be kind of like Broner’s 1st round knockout win over Jason Litzau. Lockett prevented that from happening by wisely stopping the fight.

Broner was brilliant in the fight, connecting with 75% of his punches that were aimed at Rees’ head. Broner’ accuracy was unreal.

In the first couple of rounds, Broner gave Rees some false hope by letting him land some shots, and control the action. From the 3rd round on, it was a brutal slaughter with Rees in a full scale retreat under heavy fire from Broner. Rees was really hammered in the 3rd, and it was a miracle he escaped that round.

In the 4th, Broner put Rees down with a right uppercut that came out of nowhere, putting Rees on his backside on the canvas. If Lockett wanted to stop the fight that would have been a good moment because it was apparent to all that Rees was in a hopeless situation without the tools required to make a fight of it.

In the 5th, Broner put Rees down one more time with a body shot, and the fight stopped in short order by Lockett.



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