Adrien Broner came on down the stretch and floored Emmanuel Taylor in the 12th round to seal a victory and gain the WBA international light welterweight title Saturday night. Broner (29-1, 20 KO’s) fought in front of his hometown fans in Cincinnati but there was no home-cooking in the scorecards.
Official scores were 116-111, 116-111 and 115-112. InTheCorner.net scored the fight 115-112 for Broner.
Taylor (18-3, 12 KO’s) came out aggressively and took advantage of Broner’s tendency to lay back and not throw punches. Broner styled his way around the ring in the first two rounds while Taylor sustained an attack that wasn’t especially damaging, but counted on the scorecards.
The hometown fighter woke up in the 3rd round and used his superior speed and punching power to turn the tide of the fight.
But Taylor renewed his attack in the middle rounds and a very entertaining fight was on. When the two fought in the middle of the ring, Broner controlled the distance and outclassed his opponent. When Taylor pushed the action to the ropes, he threw many more punches and, despite Broner’s solid defense, Taylor was the one doing all the work. It was two different fights, throughout.
As the 12th round opened, Broner had built up a lead and Taylor came out in his most aggressive posture yet. The two went back and forth, both doing damage, and Taylor appeared to have the upper hand.
But Broner, who had been cut the round before, landed a beautiful left hand that floored Taylor, and all the drama was lifted from the scoring.
It was a great effort from Taylor and a very solid performance from Broner. “The Problem,” once again, showed his flaws. The biggest one being his inactivity.
But in this contest, he got better as it went along, did what he needed to do to take over, and he closed the show with a big punch.
That’s about all you can ask of Broner in this particular matchup. (I think others at this weight class might do more damage on him than Taylor did). But the brash fighter surprised many by giving a gracious post-fight interview. He thanked Taylor for coming to his hometown, which I wasn’t sure was something he could do.
It was a good night for Adrien Broner, and Emmanuel Taylor as well, but Broner’s future in the division has some stiff challenges.
