By Scott Gilfoid: WBO super featherweight champion Adrien Broner’s mismatch with 2nd tier fighter Gary Sykes is now officially off. Sykes has lost his chance at the once in a lifetime dream title shot against the talented 22-year-old Broner.
Perhaps it’s for the best, because it isn’t as if Sykes had a chance to win the fight in the first place. Instead of the mismatch against Sykes, Broner will be fighting a mismatch against #1 WBO, #12 IBF, Vincente Escobedo (25-3, 15 KO’s) on July 21st.
This fight is a little bit better than the Sykes mismatch, but not a whole heck of a lot because Escobedo has already been badly exposed by Michael Katsidis and Robert Guerrero in 2009 and 2010. The 30-year-old Escobedo’s inflated #1 ranking by the World Boxing Organization is frankly a joke. If all that is required to get ranked at #1 is to beat Rocky Juarez, Walter Estrada and Lonnie Smith then that’s a pretty sad statement about the WBO, isn’t it?
I see Escobedo as fringe contender all the way as in bottom 15 fodder and I’m talking barely bottom 15. I see Escobedo as more of a top 25 contender rather than #1. That’s a really weird ranking for someone who hasn’t beaten anyone of note. I think some of Broner’s victims Eloy Perez and Jason Litzau would make easy work of Escobedo, but it looks Golden Boy Promotions wanted a mismatch for Broner’s next fight anyway, so I guess Escobedo is about as good a mismatch you can dig up under the circumstances.
I’d much rather see Broner face a fighter with a pulse like Roman Martinez. That would be a decent fight because Martinez can actually fight and would show Broner some things that will help him learn.
Broner was supposed to be fighting on the undercard of the Amir Khan vs. Lamont Peterson II rematch on May 19th, but that fight was wiped out by Peterson’s positive drug test for performance enhancing drugs.
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