by Jordan C: After the defeat came, after the cameras were off, after the hype bubble had been burst by Marcos Maidana, Adrien Broner reportedly spoke to the press. He called for a rematch without a tuneup, according to sources. He said he’d be back.
Back to where?
We had seen Broner’s weaknesses before. They were apparent in his fight against Paulie Malignaggi. They presented themselves again in his fight against Marcos Maidana. This was not an off night. This was not an accident. Maidana didn’t merely get lucky. Broner may very well be stuck between a rock and a hard place, given the extensive list of his in-ring flaws; the rock being Danny Garcia, the hard place being the welterweight division.
Broner’s Philly Shell is more akin to Andre Berto’s than to Floyd Mayweather’s, which is to say it isn’t very good. Broner makes those “Aah!” noises when he punches, leaving his mouth open, which could easily lead to a broken jaw. He doesn’t handle pressure well. He panics, he gets up from knockdowns too fast, he has trouble fighting on the backfoot, he stops throwing punches when he’s stressed, and his offensive power, which was sufficient to grant him victories in lighter weight classes, is insufficient at welterweight. Maidana may have had some swelling after the fight, but he was never hurt. He was never shaken. And Broner did land some good shots. They just didn’t do the kind of damage that Maidana’s did.
Perhaps most importantly, Broner has a problem dealing with the left hook. Unless Danny Garcia, the undisputed king at light welterweight, moves out of the 140 pound division, or unless Broner is willing to be a second-tier fighter at 140 pounds, he will not have success at 140. Danny Garcia’s left hand is notorious. It’s lethal. From what was evident in Broner’s fights against Malignaggi and Maidana, it’s a good bet that Garcia would crush Broner with it.
Plus, that assumes Broner can even make weight at 140 anymore. It’s possible he could have continued success at 135, but that assumes he can make weight at 135, which is even more of a stretch.
Make no mistake, this would not have happened against Floyd Mayweather. This was not the death rattle of the Philly Shell. It was a lack of skill and a lack of ability to adjust. It was what happens when the Philly Shell is employed badly, just like Berto’s loss to Robert Guerrero was. And it wasn’t shown with one lucky punch. It was shown systematically, throughout a punishing 12-round fight which Broner clearly lost.
He says he’ll be back with a confident smile. He calls for a rematch without a tuneup. In doing so he makes it apparent that his attitude hasn’t changed, and that he didn’t learn the lessons he should have learned from his defeat. Given his weaknesses and the level of talent in the weight classes he’s most likely to be able to make weight for, what is there for Adrien Broner to come back to?
He doesn’t need to come back for another beating. We already saw him take one of those.
Comments are closed.