By Chris Williams: WBO supper featherweight champion Adrien Broner (23-0, 19 KO’s) looked like a superstar in the making in stopping top contender Eloy Perez in the 4th round last Saturday night at the Scottrade Center in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Broner looks like a perfect copy of Floyd Mayweather Jr., but with a superior ability to give witty soundbites during interviews. Broner has already run out of competition at super featherweight and pretty much will be forced to move up to the lightweight division to seek out bigger fights with bigger money.
The two biggest fights by far for Broner at lightweight would be against former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios or Yuriorkis Gamboa. Those two fighters are about to meet head to head in their next fight, but I see no reason why the winner – or loser – of that fight couldn’t be matched against Broner to see how they would do against this new sensational star.
The one thing that would possibly hold back a fight between Broner and Rios or Gamboa is their promoter Bob Arum. They both fight for Top Rank, while Broner fights for Golden Boy Promotions. That right there may be enough to keep Broner from ever getting to fight those guys unless he leaves Golden Boy and signs up with another promoter or signs with Top Ranks. It’s too bad because those would be good fights for Broner if they could be made, but I just can’t see it happening unless something changes in the future with the way these two promotional companies do business with one another.
I would pick Broner to beat both Rios and Gamboa if he were given the chance to fight either of them. He’s too hard to hit and a much better defensive fighter than either of them. With his counter punching ability, Broner would have countless opportunities to set traps for him and hurt them with shots.
Rather than seeing Broner as a Floyd Mayweather Jr. clone, I see Broner as a split between Mayweather Jr. and counter punching marvel Guillermo Rigondeaux. He brings a lot of the same things that Rigondeaux brings to the table, but he’s not the same kind of dangerous body puncher that Rigondeaux is at this point. I think Broner can quickly learn from Rigondeaux to throw body punches like him, but right now he’s dangerous like him but not in the same way when throwing to the body.
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