Broner wins hard-fought unanimous decision over Taylor

Fighting in his hometown of Cincinnati, Adrien Broner knocked Emmanuel Taylor down in the 12th round en route to a unanimous decision victory over Taylor in a fight that was closer than most expected Saturday night before a crowd of 8,115 at U.S. Bank Arena.

Judges Scott Maddox and Robert Pope scored it 116-111, and Gary Merritt 115-112, all for Broner, who improved to 29-1 with 22 KOs.

Taylor, a mostly unknown fighter from the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C., fell to 18-2 with 12 KOs. But he showed that he belonged with elite competition when he came out and was the aggressor through most of the first half of their fight.

Broner found his bearings and began to dominate much of the second half of the fight. He finally dropped Taylor with a left hook near the end the final round. That 10-8 round pretty much clinched the victory for the Cincinnati native.

Broner was highly accurate throughout, landing 48% of his power punches -- 150 of 310.

"I'm coming off a war with (Marcos) Maidana (suffering his first loss), and then I come back against a guy like Taylor," Broner said. ""He's African-American. I knew it was going to be a good ifght."

Broner 25, said he wanted Lucas Matthysse next. Matthysse, from Argentina, knocked out Mexican Roberto Ortiz in the second round on the undercard. The heavy-handed Matthysse has 34 knockouts among his 36 wins.

.Said Taylor: "Everybody underestimated me. Everyone thought I was going to get stopped. Nobody expected me to do what I did tonight. I felt good throughout the whole fight. Tonight just wasn't my night."

Also on the undercard, Andre Berto, a former welterweight champion fighting for the first time in 14 months after undergoing shoulder surgery, scored a unanimous 10-round decision against Steve Upsher Chambers. Berto improved to 29-3 with 22 KOs.

Warren wins home debut: Rau'shee Warren's fast hands and straight lefts ultimately overwhelmed opponent Jose Luis Araiza, earning Warren a unanimous decision Saturday night at U.S. Bank Arena in his Cincinnati debut as a pro.

Warren's record went to 12-0 with 3 knockouts; Araiza fell to 34-9-1 (25 KOs). The best part of the night for almost everybody in the house – well, besides the ninth-round knockdown of Araiza – was when Warren's 6-year-old son, Rau'shee Jr., jumped into his father's arms immediately after the bout.

"I saw you fight, Dad, I saw you fight," Rau'shee Jr. told his father. "He (Araiza) wouldn't stay down; he wouldn't stay down!"

In his dressing room afterward, Warren grinned at the re-telling. He enjoyed giving his son a thrill, and the same for the hometown crowd, which supported the Westwood native through his three Olympics.

Warren said his hometown debut as a pro was everything he expected it to be.

Veteran coach Mike Stafford said Warren would seek a title in "one or two more fights," and that it would "definitely" be in Cincinnati.

By then, the hometown jitters will be all gone, Stafford said, and Warren would know how to handle them.

"He came out a little tentative," Stafford said. "As the fight went on, he began listening to us. He could see he was faster than the other guy. We wanted him to move inside more." -- John Erardi, Cincinnati Enquirer