By Allan Fox: At last night’s post-fight press conference, newly crowned WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner (27-0, 22 KO’s) said he wants to go after more world titles in other weight classes. He said specifically that he might move down to 140, 135 or 130 to go after some of world champions in those weight classes. It would appear that Broner doesn’t intend on defending his WBA 147 lb. title.
Broner said “Now it’s time to get more belts in somebody else’s weight class. I don’t know if it’s light welterweight or I might go back down to lightweight or junior lightweight [super featherweight]. I really don’t matter. Whatever is the better fight for me, I don’t care what weight it’s at. The fans can pick the opponent.”
The fans would likely choose Lucas Matthyse for Broner to fight if he were to move down to 140, but Matthysse doesn’t have the full WBC 140 lb. title because he’s been having problems trying to get WBC 140 lb. champion Danny Garcia to fight him. Broner would likely not face Matthysse if he didn’t have the full belt.
That leaves Danny Garcia or IBF champion Lamont Peterson as potential fights for Broner. Peterson just got knocked out by Matthysse, and so Broner would look bad in picking Peterson to fight next. It would give the appearance that he’s running from the 147 lb. division and is picking out a less dangerous guy that just got knocked out in Peterson. The move would reek of careful match-making.
If he were to keep the WBA 147 lb. title, he would soon have to face the winner of the Keith Thurman vs. Diego Chaves fight, in addition to #2 Marcos Maidana. Needless to say, those would be difficult fights for Broner with the way he fought last night. Those fighters puncher harder than him and would likely give him a lot of problems.
The only interesting fight for Broner at lightweight would be against WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns, but Broner’s had no luck in trying to get Burns to fight him. That could change after last night’s fight with Broner looking so bad, but it’s still unlikely that fight happens. If Broner were to face WBA lightweight champion Richard Abril or IBF champion Miguel Vazquez, neither of those fights would do much for him because those would be ugly fights because both of those champions use a lot of movement and they would make Broner look bad.
As far as Broner moving down to super featherweight, there’s only one interesting champion at that weight class and that’s WBA 130 lb. champion Takashi Uchiyama. That would be a good fight but it wouldn’t attract much interest in the United States. Broner probably wouldn’t be able to get a fight against WBO super featherweight champion Roman Martinez because he’s a Top Rank fighter and Bob Arum of Top Rank is talking about matching Mikey Garcia against Roman Martinez next.
Broner really only has one interesting fight at 140 and that’s Matthysse and he probably won’t take that fight because like I said, Matthysse doesn’t have the full WBC 140 lb title. However, Matthysse is recognized by hardcore boxing fans as being the best fighter in the division at this time. I expect Broner to go in the path of least resistance by choosing to fight Lamont Peterson for his IBF title.
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