Schaefer: I offered Ricky Burns a lot of money to fight Broner but was turned down

By Boxing News - 03/06/2013 - Comments

broner45By Scott Gilfoid: After learning that WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns’ fight with IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez was experiencing some difficulties, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer made one last attempt to try and set up a unification bout between Burns and the Golden Boy promoted WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner, but the HUGE offer made to Burns was reportedly turned down by his manager.

Schaefer said to Dan Rafael of ESPN “I offered Frank [Warren] a lot of money for Burns to come over. It’s a VERY big number…At least Ricky is going to make double or triple what he can make in this fight with Vazquez. Frank said, ‘I’m on board, but the manager doesn’t want to fight Broner.’ He said there’s nothing he can do.”

Oh, how sad. Well, I guess we can close the final chapter on a Burns vs. Broner fight. It’s too bad it would have been nice to see how Broner would deal with the grabbing, clinching and arm bars from Burns. I would have liked to have seen that fight, although it clearly would have been sickeningly one-sided from start to the bitter finish with Broner beating Burns like an old drum.

Perhaps it’s for the best because it’s not as if the American public would give two figs to see Broner beat up on an unknown UK fighter that they’ve never seen or heard of before. I can see more than a few boxing fans being upset with HBO for putting on a mismatch like that.

Anyway, Schaefer had been hoping to lure Burns over to the U.S to fight Broner on June 15th in Las Vegas, Nevada, but now it’s a pointless endeavor. Burns can continue to fight the Kevin Mitchells and the Nicky Cooks of the boxing world, while Broner moved up to fight the best in the welterweight division and become a huge, huge star of the sport.

Broner has the talent to fight well above the lightweight division, and he plans on moving up to welterweight very soon. We could be seeing him facing WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi on June 22nd if Broner and Malignaggi can agree on a contract. Schaefer really likes that fight, and I imagine the American boxing public will as well.



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