By Allan Fox: Adrien Broner (27-0, 22 KO’s) gave a confusing interview last night Showtime in which he spent much of the time building himself up. The confusing part was how he complimented Floyd Mayweather Jr, who he called his “Big brother,” but then he said Mayweather’s time is about over. It came across like he was already burying Mayweather before he’s even through with his career.
Broner said this to showtime: “A year or two from now, I’m going to be the best boxer that ever laced up a pair of boxing gloves. I ain’t got that far to go. I’m already there at 23, 24. I just turned 24. I’m a three time world champion; three different weight classes. Ain’t nobody ever did it. At the end of the day, I won’t have to do that [fight Mayweather]. It’s not about who you fight. It’s about what you do with your window open. My big brother [Mayweather Jr] is the greatest that ever lived right now, but at the end of the day everybody knows his window is closing. He’s only got a couple of fights left. I don’t care how much money they offer me, I’m not going to fight my big brother. That’s stupid. We going to keep the money in the family.”
For Broner’s sake, it might be a good thing that he doesn’t fight the 36-year-old Mayweather, because if Broner gets beaten by Mayweather badly, there’s no way that Broner can become the next Mayweather even with the careful match-making that Golden Boy has been doing for Broner. Look at Broner’s last two fights if you want to see my point about how he’s being matched carefully. He’s faced Gavin Rees and Paulie Malignaggi. If that’s not careful match-making, I don’t know what is.
In fairness to Mayweather, he has more than a couple fights left. He’s got five more fights left in his 6-fight contract with Showtime. If Mayweather sticks with fighting welterweights instead of large junior middleweights like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Mayweather can easily fight beyond his contract with Showtime. I think Mayweather will still be able to dominate Broner 2 or 3 years from now depending on how well Mayweather ages. But if Broner and Mayweather were to fight right now, it would be a mismatch with Mayweather easily beating Broner.
Broner probably needs Mayweather’s career to be over for him to step completely into the Mayweather role. With Mayweather still fighting, Broner can’t take over the role completely, and just appears like a poor knock off version of Mayweather in the eyes of some fans.
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