By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated super featherweight contender Adrien Broner (21-0, 17 KO’s) made it look easy in destroying highly ranked Jason Litzau (28-3, 21 KO’s) by a devastating 1st round knockout last Saturday night at the Arena VFG, Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco, Mexico. Broner, ranked #6 WBO, #7 WBA, #7 WBC, and #14 IBF in the super featherweight division, eluded the slower Litzau’s attacks for most of the round and then caught Litzau on the ropes and hurt him with a hard right hand to the head.
Instead of of clinching or trying to get off the ropes, Litzau continued to try and fight with his back against the ropes by using upper body movement to try and duck and dodge Broner’s shots. In hindsight, it wasn’t the smartest thing for Litzau, ranked #2 WBC, #3 IBF, #3 WBC, #7 WBO, to have done, as Broner unloaded with both hands throwing a massive amount of punches that caught Litzau again and again until he was knocked senseless and collapsed on the canvas.
Referee Curtis Thrasher didn’t even give Litzau a chance to try and get up, knowing how hurt he was. The fight was stopped at 2:58 of the round. What made this win so much more impressive for Broner is that Litzau was coming off of a huge win over bantamweight Celestino Caballero in his last fight in November, and it was thought by many that Litzau might have too much power for the young 21-year-old Broner to handle.
However, Litzau started off too slowly against Broner and failed to attack him hard in the center of the ring the way he needed to in order to get warmed up. Litzau also needed to stay off the ropes. He was doing okay until he for some reason backed up against the ropes. By doing this, Litzau was like a trapped animal and made it easy for Broner to line him up for a big right hand that hurt him. Once Broner had Litzau hurt, he proved to be a great finisher by unloading on him with a massive amount of accurate shots.
Broner’s fighting style is a lot like Floyd Mayweather Jr., albeit a slower version. Broner has good hand speed but he’s not nearly as fast as Mayweather. However, he doesn’t seem to need to be because he’s got such excellent boxing skills. Broner looked a lot better against Litzau than he did in his last fight against Daniel Ponce De Leon last March. Broner won that fight but did a lot of running and barely won the fight. Compared to that fight, Broner was a lot more aggressive and offensively minded. Of course, De Leon is an arguably much better fighter than Litzau, so we still don’t know whether Broner’s win over Litzau is a sign of real improvement or a case of him facing a weaker guy that wasn’t thinking smart.
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