By Scott Gilfoid: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) may be moving up to 147 for his next fight to challenge WBA champion Paulie Malignaggi on June 22nd, but Broner is making it clear that he’s willing to face anyone from the lightweight to the junior middleweight division if they have the name and can draw fans.
Broner said on his social media site “Ready to fight whoever from 135-154.”
Broner is pure class. That boxing needs is a fighter like that who is willing to jump from division to division to get the biggest fights possible.
Broner may need to do that because he’s having a hard time getting the one fight that he wanted at 135 against WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns, and it’s painfully obvious that there’s nothing else for Broner if he can’t get that fight, which really is not a fight that resonates with American boxing fans.
It might interest fans in the UK, but it won’t get any more interest than Broner’s last mismatch against UK fighter Gavin Rees. That’s not a main event fight.
The problem with Broner moving up to 147 and fighting is that he’ll likely put a little more weight on to take that fight, so that when he does, if he does, move back down to 135 to face Burns or someone else, it’ll be really difficult for Broner to take the weight off to fight at 135.
That’s the thing. If you move up in weight to a higher weight class, it’s next to impossible to move back sown to where you were once fighting. For Broner, it would be even tougher because he would be moving up two entire weight classes to take that fight with Malignaggi.
By Broner saying he’s willing to fight at 154, he’s talking about him fighting WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Wow, that would some fight. The 5’9” Canelo facing the 5’7 ½” Broner would be a really great fight, and I can see that fight possibly going over 1 million buys.
What’s interesting about that fight is that Broner’s reach is the same as Canelo’s despite Broner fighting three divisions below Canelo. What that means is that Canelo wouldn’t have a reach advantage, and the only real advantage he’d have in that fight is a weight advantage of possibly 20 pounds. Canelo rehydrates close to 170, and Broner fights at around 146 lbs. when he rehydrates from 135.
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