The noble Gavin Rees breezed out of Atlantic city last weekend with his head held as high as it was when he jogged down into the Arena to face Adrien Broner. It was never going to be an easy task for Rees against the overwhelming favourite - some uber-confident US bookies had got Rees at 80/1 pre fight - in front of a truly miserable, thin on the ground, partisan crowd. Crazily high odds were amusing the American commentators in a sport where history, and science, tells us that every single man in that ring has a punchers chance! Someone so durable as Gavin Rees was sure to cause even Broner to break sweat. The Atlantic Boardwalk Arena was more sparsely populated than it usually is for a world title fight. Yes, it's February, and just perhaps the prospect of $50 giving you, in Broner's case, 10 minutes of entertainment against the complete unknown (in the US) underdog in Rees was unappealing? Whatever.
Rees has had no easy route to this fight. A well publicised struggle with his compulsion to all the night life of Wales has to offer, coupled with that famous loss to Kotelnyk, has meant a long road of redemption for the Welshman and a drop down to lightweight. The culmination of that struggle was last Saturday night, and Adrien Broner. Not a place you want to be when you are 32, a long way from home, and your life/career depends on the outcome. Broner is the USA's answer to Tyson Fury. He polarises the fans to such a degree that it's rumoured he can't even walk down the pavements in his native City of Cincinnati without someone hurling abuse at him. "I'm an entertainer" he plainly says. He does just that.
Saturday night's fight started with the ring entrances - Rees all composure and focus, bobbing his way towards the ring in his busy manner. Broner looked like he was on stage at an R & B concert, rapping into his headset something I couldn't quite catch but which sounded like "can't get ya"? Who knows what he was shouting, it could have been the bingo numbers for all I know or care. In Broner's mind this is what the crowd wants though, so that's exactly what you are going to get. Only Naseem Hamed entered a boxing ring with less professionalism than Adrien Broner does. Seconds before the start of the fight Rees stood there, for all the world looking like some random bloke from Wales, while Broner's entourage struggled removing his headset and bling related clothing, prompting the Ref to Shout "Come on Adrien". It was the collision of two totally separate worlds. The fight would be the same, unfortunately for Rees.
entourage struggled removing his headset and bling related clothing, prompting the Ref to Shout "Come on Adrien". It was the collision of two totally separate worlds. The fight would be the same, unfortunately for Rees.
Round one, and Rees started brightly. His movement was much better than he's shown in the past and he caught Broner with some excellent shots - particularly the short chopping left hook, which Rees throws from down low with intense speed. Broner looked like he was unsure of what to do for the first minute other than continually shake his head after being hit. I didn't buy it at first and neither did Rees. He won the round easily.
Rees continued the pressure and for the first two minutes of the 2nd Broner looked to be out of sorts. The Welshman was bright, focussed, but towards the end of the round Broner started to get his range, feeling Rees out with his left. Still, it was Rees' round in my book.
But then it got much, much worse. Broner gradually increased the pressure as his right hand came into play more and more. It was obvious now that all the head shaking by Broner wasn't play acting, Rees genuinely wasn't hurting him. At the first appearance of the "bolo" punch I knew it was all over - and you know that if Broner has brought "bolo" out to play he's in a happy place. Rees' face was starting to show signs of just how hard Broner hits as a right uppercut (which, for me, was due to poor refereeing after both fighters should have been broken up properly) sent him backwards on his heels and onto the canvas. The rest of the fight was just more and more power and dominance by Broner, who was in his arrogant pomp. As Rees was floored again by a body punch, there was only going to be one winner. His corner eventually couldn't take any more and with seconds of the 5th to go Lockett threw in the towel.
In the post fight interviews Broner was at his cocky best, mock-forgetting Ricky Burn's name and playing to the crowd. He had completely and utterly destroyed a very tough man in Gavin Rees and I didn't like it. I wanted Rees to test Broner, to make a fight of it. "Why didn't he take him further?" I asked myself.
Ben Thomset
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