By Paul Strauss: By now you know, Adrien “The Problem” Broner 25 (KO 21)-0-0 destroyed Anthony DeMarco 28 (KO 21)-3-0 Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, N.J. Over the course of the seven plus rounds the fight lasted, Tony maybe landed a handful of decent punches. The rest of the fight was all Broner. The Problem child shined in his domination of the WBC lightweight title holder, but it really was more of a gift than something earned.
Unfortunately for DeMarco, he fought a courageous but stupid fight. He gave up his height and reach advantage. He failed to establish his jab and punch in combinations. It wasn’t that Broner took it away, he simply gave it away. More over, when he moved (which wasn’t often), he moved to his left into Broner’s power. Most of the time he failed to establish any kind of range or distance beneficial to him.
He fought more like he was about 5ft tall, rather than 5″10″. He was bent over and immobile. He didn’t move from the waist, and didn’t move his head, and more often than not his gloves were not in the correct position to protect himself or to punch. He seemingly forgot a fighter must know what punching distance is for himself and that of his opponent. Tony would consistently go beyond the necessary distance he needed to land shots, and into the range of Broner’s shots.
Even when that happens, a good fighter knows when he is in the danger zone, he needs to do one or more of several things. If he’s within his range, he should be throwing punches. Along with that he should avoid admiring his work, change angles, move. If caught in front, he had better have his head positioned correctly to protect himself from shots (uppercuts), or be moving his head and upper body, and if all else fails, he should clinch or tie his man up, spin him, or move out of range altogether if that’s all that’s available. In other words, get the hell out of there! Good fighters are hardly ever there for a follow up shot after getting nailed with a good one.
DeMarco did none of those things. As the fight progressed, viewers saw Tony bent over, offering himself as a gift to Broner. He would repeatedly get hit with right uppercuts, but made no adjustments. As a result, Broner had a field day. He ripped off more shots, some to the body, and some around DeMarco’s guard. Soon DeMarco’s face took on the look of someone who had been in a headon, possibly hitting the windshield.
His facial expression also told a story, and it was a short one…..There was no hope! Evidently, DeMarco didn’t have a clue. He didn’t know what the hell to do?. By that time, when on the inside (which was much of the time) Broner would simply push and hold his left glove in DeMarco’s face, hoping to obstruct Tony’s vision. Then he would tee off with right hands, and follow with all of the other usual shots……..hooks, shovel hooks and more uppercuts.
It was not a pretty sight. However, the question remains, does Broner’s easy time of it prove he is truly one of the best pound for pound already? The answer is probably not, at least not with this kind of performance by the opposition. As previously mentioned, DeMarco handed this fight to Broner by forgetting everything he knew about boxing. It would be difficult to find a veteran fighter do more things incorrectly. When DeMarco watches film of this fight, his people will undoubtedly look at him with disbelief and say, “What were you thinking? You know better than that!”