Unbeaten Adrien Broner battered Antonio DeMarco on the way to an eighth-round technical knockout to seize the Mexican’s World Boxing Council lightweight title.
DeMarco had no answer for Broner’s power and speed. The US challenger, a former World Boxing Organization super featherweight champion, took charge from the opening bell and finally sent DeMarco sprawling to his knees with a compact right to the body followed by a swinging left in the eighth.
DeMarco’s corner immediately threw in the towel and the referee called a halt at 1:49 of the eighth round.
The 23-year-old Broner improved to 25-0 with 21 victories inside the distance.
DeMarco, who had won his past five fights, departed the ring with his face bruised and bloody, falling to 28-3-1, with 21 knockouts.
“Once I’m in there, when I’ve got a game plan and I see something I go after it,” Broner said. “I was going to do exactly what I did — shake him up, shake him and bake him, cook him and eat him.”
Broner said he was always confident he could take the champion.
“I knew he wouldn’t have the skills and the will to beat me,” he said.
The fight at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall brought boxing back to an area hit hard by superstorm Sandy.
Golden Boy Promotions said it would donate a portion of ticket sales to local girls and boys’ clubs, whose buildings were damaged in the storm, with Golden Boy owner Oscar de la Hoya and Caesars Atlantic City promising matching donations.
Broner dethrones DeMarco for WBC lightweight title
