Broner cool to the idea of facing Abril in unification bout

By Boxing News - 03/04/2013 - Comments

broner111By Scott Gilfoid: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) appears to be bored by the idea of facing WBA lightweight champion Richar Abril (18-3, 8 KO’s) after watching his 12 round unanimous decision win over Sharif Bogere last Saturday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, The Joint, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Abril hugged and ran his way to a decision by the scores of 116-110, 115-111 and 116-110, and this totally turned off Broner from wanting to fight him.

Broner said to esnewsreporting.com “I’m Mr. HBO. No, no no [in response to the question of whether he’s interested in facing Abril]. You know where they [Abril-Bogere] just fought? They fought in my basement. If I had a party, that’s how many people that would come out.”

There probably wouldn’t be much interest in a fight between the 5’11” Abril and Broner. It would be a fight where Broner would have to chase Abril around the ring, and tag him whenever he could catch up to the guy. It wouldn’t be a fight that would do much for Broner because of Abril’s ugly fighting style.

Broner’s options at lightweight aren’t good right now unless he wants to wait around until WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns gets done facing IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez on April 20th, provided the fight actually takes place. Broner would then be looking to face Burns in August or September at the earliest.

In other words, Broner would be giving up almost his entire year just for that measly fight, and it would likely be a terrible mismatch like his recent win over the 5’4” Gavin Rees. That’s a terrible 2013 if you’re Broner because you’d like to see him have something to actually show for it in terms of significant wins, and beating Burns and Gavin are meaningless victories, especially if Broner has to wait a long time to get the Burns fight.

There’s talk that Broner could skip straight to welterweight for his next fight against WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi. Right now, Malignaggi is thinking it over about whether he wants the fight, but if he accepts the offer made by Golden Boy Promotions then that’s the direction that Broner will likely take. He’s not going to invest anymore wasted time on waiting for Burns when the fight was reportedly turned down by Burns’ manager.



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