By Keith Idec

Adrien Broner admits Adrian Granados hurt him at one point during their taxing fight Saturday night.

The former four-division champion didn’t specify when Granados hurt him, but Broner’s trainer, Mike Stafford, indicated it came early in the fight. Stafford also said Granados’ hard shot affected Broner similar to the way Marcos Marcos hurt him in their December 2013 fight.

Argentina’s Maidana dropped Broner twice on his way to winning a unanimous decision that night three years ago in San Antonio. Broner bounced back from Granados hurting him, however, to win a split decision in their 10-round welterweight fight in Cincinnati, Broner’s hometown.

“I hurt him for sure,” Broner said during a post-fight press conference. “I hurt him plenty of times. But I’m gonna be honest – he hurt me one time. He hurt me one time. And I’m very good at keeping it as a disguise. Just like a lot of people ain’t know I hurt my [left] hand in the first round. But I did what I had to do. And he stayed tough and I stuck to my game plan. You know, I had to make my adjustments and it was a hell of a fight.”

The moment to which Broner and Stafford referred seemed to occur during the second round. Granados connected with a right hand at the 1:27 mark of that round, which left Broner holding him.

“He got hurt, as far as the one punch early,” Stafford said. “But then he adjusted like a mother***er. Because that punch was just as good as a Maidana punch. But he came right back, came right back. That was a hell of a fight.”

Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) is certain, though, that he landed more hurtful shots against Granados than Granados (18-5-2, 12 KOs) landed against him. Nevertheless, neither fighter went down during their 10-rounder and Granados, Broner’s former sparring partner, kept pressing the back-and-forth action right up until the final bell.

“I know I hurt him,” Broner said. “I know I hurt him. I could hear him. I could hear him, ‘oohing and aahing,’ when I hit him with body shots on the inside. And I’m not gonna lie. He hit me with some good shots … but this is boxing.

“I’m not somebody that’s gonna say, ‘Oh, he didn’t hit me.’ Or, ‘I didn’t get hit with a good shot,’ because the mother***er could fight. And I knew that. I knew that coming in the door and I knew I had to be on top of my game or I would be another Amir Imam. And I’m not throwing no shade at Amir Imam. But it just is what it is.”

Granados stopped the favored Imam (19-1, 16 KOs) in the eighth round of their November 2015 fight in Quebec City, Canada.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.