By Jake Donovan

Adrien Broner was tagged often enough by Emmanuel Taylor to repeatedly draw a collective gasp from his hometown fans. There were plenty of nervous moments among a packed house of 8,115 at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, as fans stressed over the thought of their local hero suffering a major upset in Saturday’s Showtime-televised headliner.

The energy was already lively throughout the night, but shattered decibel levels when Broner rallied for a knockdown courtesy of a left hook at the tail end of a flurry late in round 12, moving on to take a well-earned unanimous decision win. The final scorecards suggested that he was going to win even without Taylor hitting the deck, but it proved to be a sigh of relief for the crowd and his team.

The only one who never seemed to be fully concerned was the winner.

“It’s boxing, we get hit with some shots,” Broner (29-1, 22KOs) stated matter-of-factly of a fight in which Taylor threatened all night to shock the world. “At the end of the day, you got to learn how to keep your cool and stick to your game plan.”

Taylor’s game plan from the opening bell was to make things as uncomfortable as possible for the former three-division champ, fighting at home for the first time in more than two years. It worked for much of the night, taking Broner’s best and constantly coming back, particularly with head-jarring right hand shots.

It took for Broner to dig deep late in the fight and put together a disciplined attack in order to prevail. An easy night was clearly never going to be in store, though he knew to expect that and was prepared to adapt from round to round.

“I make adjustments in every fight,” stated Broner, who is repeatedly on record to never watching fight tape, instead relying on the flow of a fight to dictate his night’s work. “He had a game plan and stuck to it. Once I seen that, I made my adjustments and won the fight.”

The night was designed as a prelude to a potential clash with Lucas Matthysse, who stopped Roberto Ortiz in two rounds in the evening’s co-feature. Afterward, Matthysse seemed more intent on targeting a rematch with Danny Garcia – against whom he dropped a decision last December – while a showdown with Broner would simply serve as a backup plan.

For Broner – who has now won two straight since a wide points loss to Marcos Maidana last December – whatever the future holds in store, he’s confident greatness will follow.

“Any moment for me is a historic moment. I already got a Hall of Fame career,” Broner suggests. “Now it’s only going to get bigger from here.”

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com, as well as a member of Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox