Adrien Broner has been many things in his career – a promising prospect, a marquee attraction, “The Can Man,” “About Billions” – but on Friday in Hollywood, Florida, he just looked like a broken-down, half-interested fighter.
Credit is due to Blair Cobbs for playing an important hand in that look – many hands, actually, including both rights and lefts, from all sorts of imaginative angles. It was his mostly steady southpaw activity, not to mention his sizzling left hand that sent Broner to the canvas in the second round, that carried Cobbs to a unanimous decision win in a welterweight 10-rounder at the Hotel Hard Rock and Casino.
Scores were announced 97-91 and 96-93 (twice) for Cobbs.
Although Cobbs (17-1-1, 10 KOs), a Las Vegas resident, was the favorite going into the fight, Cincinnati’s Broner (35-5-1, 24 KOs) was the show’s clear headliner. But Broner’s trouble – “The Problem,” you might say – is that it has been years since he has demonstrated he’s deserving of such a spotlight. For this matchup, following a split with former trainer Kevin Cunningham and some wild, threatening pre-fight remarks directed at Cobbs, Broner walked into the ring Friday appearing to be out of shape and listless.
After a nothingburger first round in which Broner hardly moved his hands, Cobbs got loose in the second, tying up his opponent with a jab and uncoiling a left hand that bounced Broner to the canvas, removing his gumshield – and a tooth! – while also briefly relieving the 34-year-old Broner of his senses.
“It wasn’t too surprising,” Cobbs said after the fight, “because I’ve been known to crack people and get them out early.”
From there, the race was on for Cobbs, whose grin could barely contain his excitement. Although Broner recovered fairly quickly, he showed almost no urgency in the first half of the fight. Cobbs stayed steadfastly busy, twisting, lunging, changing levels and angles, never giving Broner an easy target and always answering any of his attempts to open up the throttle with a series of jabs or a combination to force Broner to shut it down again.
Cobbs spun Broner’s head with a huge left in the fifth, grinning yet again after then quadrupling up on his jab. By then, Broner was taking the punches well but offering nothing in return – and losing every round by a Florida mile.
“As the fight went on, I’m still working my jab,” Cobbs said. “Working my high-low, catching him with shots he didn’t see coming.
“He survived a lot of big blows after getting knocked down. He has a tremendous chin.”
The momentum shifted slightly in the sixth, as Broner landed a handful of hard shots, despite throwing no combinations and applying walk-down pressure on Cobbs that he never used.
In the seventh, Cobbs knocked Broner’s mouthpiece out again – and then again, for a third time. Gassed and mouth agape, Broner nevertheless showed a bit more offense in the frame as Cobbs lingered in his range a bit too long.
Broner almost lost his gumshield grip a fourth time in the eighth, but he bit down in every sense of the word. He began throwing – and occasionally landing – hard jabs, uppercuts and winging hooks, showing more willingness to let his hands go. But too often, a single-punch flash of the old Broner would be answered by a flurry from Cobbs – nothing devastating, but just enough to score points with the judges.
In the ninth, a call from Broner’s corner could be heard: “You gonna have to knock him out.” Almost like clockwork, Broner began putting in strong body work, the sort of strategy that might have served him well a good seven or eight rounds earlier. Broner was getting through here and there, thumping Cobbs with something heavy every now and again, but Cobbs kept moving and touching, touching, touching to break any rhythm Broner might have mustered so late in the game.
As Cobbs mostly skipped around the ring in the 10th, Broner lost his mouthpiece once more in the last minute, then blistered Cobbs with a left hook at the bell – a final wasted effort.
By Jason Langendorf