Adrien Broner v Gavin Rees

After rapping his own entrance music WBC Lightweight champion Adrien Broner (26-0, 22) had to do something impressive and that's exactly what he did as he broke up and stopped Welshman Gavin Rees (37-2-1, 18) who was saved by his corner man close to the end of round 5.

The opening round was excellent for the challenger who showed an aggressive mindset and high work rate to really out work the champion who took his time to study the challenger and get used to Rees' speed and and size. From then on however the champion started to go throw the gears and appeared to hurt Rees in the second round as he started to show why he is so highly regarded. Despite hurting Rees in round 2 the challenger against made a strong case for the round on his work rate.

Whilst the second round had been close, Broner continued to go through the gears and in round 3 his class started to tell as he exploded in to action rocking Rees and pinning him on to the ropes before unloading. This was the first time Broner really opened up though it was obvious from then on that the bout was a lost cause for Rees who refused to just back down and instead showed his Welsh grit and kept coming forward.

Rees was punished for his bravery in round 4 as an excellent uppercut from Broner dropped him hard. Although Rees got up from the knock down the round turned into a painful one for the diminutive Welshman who was really tagged repeatedly as Broner continued to show his impressive power. Whilst Rees himself was landing plenty of shots they merely seemed to bounce off Broner whilst every shot from the American rocked the challenger to his boots.

If round 4 was painful round 5 was excruciating as Broner went up yet another gear and made Rees pay for the Welshman's own show boating. Broner scored a controversial knockdown with a body shot before beating the ever loving snot out of Rees for the remainder of the round before Rees' trainer Gary Lockett (himself a former Middleweight title challenger) waved the towel with a second of the round left.

Although Rees was a worthy challenger, Broner proved that he was by far and away the stronger, bigger and better man as he hurt Burns every time he landed. With the IBF/WBO unification bout between Miguel "Titere" Vazquez and Ricky Burns coming up, it'd be fair to say that the winner would be best off avoiding Broner who on this sort of form would take the best they have before stopping them.