Adrien Broner did pretty much as expected tonight, rolling through a determined Gavin Rees and scoring a fifth round corner stoppage victory that came when Rees' trainer Gary Lockett waved the towel as Broner hammered away on the underdog.
Broner (26-0, 22 KO) lost the first round for sure, and probably the second, too, as Rees (37-2-1, 18 KO) had a nice game plan and attacked well, landing frequent shots on Broner, but finding he was unable to do any significant damage. Once Broner got his timing down and turned the engine on, it was one-way traffic, as the Cincinnati fighter completely took over the bout. Rees went down in the fourth round on a right uppercut, and again in the fight on a left to the body.
Lockett actually tried to stop the fight after the fourth, but Rees wouldn't allow it. Out for the fifth, the sailing was just as tough for Rees, who simply could no longer find any success. Broner was simply too big, too strong, and too good, as the script dictated he would be.
It's a solid win over a world-ranked fighter for Broner, but there will still be the calls for him to find someone challenging to fight. Yes, Broner was the obvious massive favorite over Rees, and it played out as was expected. But the question is, is there really anyone at 135 pounds who can actually challenge Broner? Antonio DeMarco couldn't. Gavin Rees couldn't. These were top five, top 10 guys in the weight class. Should we demand that a maturing 23-year-old fighter rocket up in weight as quickly as possible?