Adrien Broner stops Khabib Allakhverdiev to win vacant WBA title

Broner wins WBA title with 12th-round knockout of Allakhverdiev
Cincinnati native has now won titles at 130lb, 135lb, 140lb and 147lb

theguardian.com

Nothing for boxer Adrien Broner has come easy. The Cincinnati native was so accustomed to making things difficult on himself at an early age that his parents nicknamed their sixth and last child ‘The Problem’.

Adrien Broner stopped Khabib Allakhverdiev in the 12th round to capture a vacant 140lb title. Photograph: Dylan Buell / Getty Images

He carried the confrontational nickname into the boxing ring and lived up to the moniker by being both a problem for his opponents and his own camp, sometimes by being his own worst enemy through lack of focus.

On Saturday, in his hometown at US Bank Arena, the 26-year-old Broner faced an immediate problem in the person of Khabib Allakhverdiev, a 22-year-old Russian fighting out of Florida.

Failing to vanquish fellow former world champion Allakhverdiev in a scheduled 12-round match to fill the vacant WBA super lightweight title would breed a bigger problem, and put Broner’s once-promising career at a crossroads.

 But a step toward Broner’s demise as an elite boxer was not in the cards following a 12th-round technical knockout against the stubborn Allakhverdiev. The fight was stopped by the referee with 39 seconds left in the 12th round following a flurry of punches against the defenseless Russian.

“No question, Broner won it,” Allakhverdiev said. “He was better than I was tonight.”

Broner (31-2, 23 KOs) agreed with the humble assessment by Allakhverdiev (19-2, 9 KOs) after capturing his a world championship in a fourth division, adding to previous super featherweight, lightweight and welterweight crowns.

It was Broner’s first fight since dropping a unanimous decision to former welterweight world champion Shawn Porter on 20 June. It was Allakhverdiev’s first fight in 18 months.
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“I’m still AB,” Broner said. “But this next half of my career, I’m going to be about boxing and billions.”

Wearing white trunks and weighing 139lbs, Allakhverdiev faced a bearded 138-and-a-half-pound Broner, who wore glittered orange and black trunks emblazoned with ‘About Billions’ on the back and ‘AB’ on the front.

The fighters sized up each other in the opening round, with few solid connections. Allakhverdiev staked the middle of the ring in round two and kept Broner on the ropes in defense mode.

The combatants began to mix it up in the third, both fighters landing powerful right hands. They began boxing in earnest in the fourth and fifth rounds, with Broner landing left jabs and overhand rights. Allakhverdiev matched him shot for shot, landing several right hands in the closely contested fourth and fifth.

The sixth round ended with a flurry of punches landed by both fighters in the final 10 seconds. The round concluded with Allakhverdiev looking marked up in the face after Broner began to invest heavily in the left jab.

Going on the aggressive, the ever-confident Broner staked the middle of the ring to begin round seven and began to take control with jabs, body punches and right hands to the head.

Broner, showing few marks, became more demonstrative in the eighth, gesturing to ringside and playing to the decidely pro-Broner crowd of 5,932 while keeping the heat on his opponent.

Looking puffy around the eyes, Allakhverdiev began missing badly in the ninth, which ended with Broner leaning into the ropes while addressing ringside announcers at the bell.

 Broner let loose a barrage of head shots and body punches that appeared to momentarily daze the Russian beginning with 1:15 to go in the 11th.

The final round ended with Broner stalking the middle of the ring and on the offensive as Allakhverdiev began showing first signs of blood around the nose.

After several Broner blows to the head beginning in the final minute of the final round, the referee stepped in and bear-hugged the Russian and stopped the fight.

With victory assured Broner hopped on the corner ropes, beat his chest, and implored his fans to cheer him.

Several big-name former boxers and local celebrities were in attendance to witness Broner add another championsahip belt, including former heavyweight champions Buster Douglas of Columbus, Ohio, and Cincinnati’s Tony Tubbs. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, bass guitarist Bootsy Collins, a Cincinnati native of Parliament-Funkadelic fame, was also on hand to root for the once and future champion from Cincinnati.

“I’m getting wiser. I’m getting older,” Broner said. “After my last fight, I said I wasn’t putting my all into it.”
 

Source:  www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/oct/04/adrien-broner-stops-khabib-allakhverdiev-to-win-vacant-wba-title

Adrien Broner wins title in fourth weight class, stops Khabib Allakhverdiev in 12th

By Rick Broering - boxingjunkie.com

CINCINNATI — Adrien “The Problem” Broner bounced back from a loss in his last fight and put on a show in front of his hometown crowd in Cincinnati Saturday night.

Photo by Kareem Elgazzar, Cincinnati Enquirer

Broner overwhelmed Khabib Allakhverdiev with power and won by technical knockout in a WBA super lightweight world title bout at US Bank Arena in front of 5,932 fans, improving his record to 31-2. Despite all the skepticism about whether the former three-time world champion had fallen off at the age of 26 due to a lack of focus, Broner was sharp on Saturday night.

The fight was stopped with a little more than 40 seconds left in the 12th round. Broner caught Allakhverdiev with a straight jab to the face that stunned him, and then unleashed a left hook, right uppercut, left hook combination, connecting on all of it and forcing referee Harvey Dock Jr. to call the fight.

“Honestly,  a young guy like me and they just threw me a lot of cash at a young age.  It was hard to adjust to the fame, to the lights,” Broner said. “After my last fight I wasn’t putting my all into it.”

He continued: “I’ve always, always worked hard, but I’m at a point in my career where I have to do more than just work hard. That’s something I’ve learned from Floyd (Mayweather).”

With the win, Broner became the second youngest boxer to win world titles in four different divisions. Oscar De La Hoya accomplished the feat as a 22-year-old.

“I dreamed of getting one world title,” Broner said. “Now I have four. You never know what God has planned.”

From the opening bell, Broner was intent on making sure this fight was different from his previous bout, against Shawn Porter in June, when he was criticized for being ill-prepared and essentially sleepwalking through the majority of the fight. He outworked Allakhverdiev on Saturday night, throwing 685 total punches to Allakhverdiev’vs 591. Broner landed 34% of his punches, including a deadly 50% of his power punches, while Allakhverdiev connected on 27% total and 31% of his power shots.

Both fighters exchanged blows through the first four rounds, but Broner’s punches were clearly more powerful as evidenced by the blemishes on Allakhverdiev’s face.

“After a few seconds in the first round, I was like, ‘I got him,’ ” Broner said.

Broner ended the sixth round with a flurry of power punches, connecting on a handful of them and clearly hurting Allakhverdiev.

Broner’s confidence continued to build as he roughed up Allakhverdiev’s face. Midway through the eighth round, Broner began talking to spectators sitting ringside. One told him to get off the ropes, and Broner responded, “he can’t hit me,” while looking at the fan and continuing to throw punches at his opponent.

The crowd came to its feet with a roar in the 11th round when Broner caught Allakhverdiev with a fierce uppercut, but the Russian managed to stay on his feet just long enough to make it into the 12th round where the fight was eventually stopped.

“Everything was on point,” Broner said of his performance. “Tonight everything was working.”
 

Source:  boxingjunkie.com/2015/10/04/adrien-broner-wins-title-in-fourth-weight-class-stops-khabib-allakhverdiev-in-12th/