by David P. Greisman

Adrien Broner had predicted an early knockout of Ashley Theophane. The early knockout didn’t come, but Broner still knew early on that Theophane wouldn’t make it to the final bell.

“He came and do his best. He was definitely tough. He wasn’t giving up, but every time I hit him he made a noise like I was, no homo, like I was sticking it to him,” Broner told reporters afterward. “He definitely came to fight, but he knew from the first round that I was everything they said I was, a problem. After the first round when I hurt him, I came back and I told Floyd [Mayweather, seated at ringside and the promoter of Theophane], I said I’ma stop him. I knew I was going to stop him.”

Theophane was game but didn’t have enough power or speed to trouble Broner. Broner was able to hurt Theophane often.

“We did exactly what we trained on in the gym, and that was a lot of power shots. I perfected it and got him out of there in the ninth round,” Broner said. “I did what I had to do. That’s another knockout on my record. I’m back to knocking people out. That’s two in a row.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com