Espinoza doubts Khan-Broner fight will take place

By Boxing News - 03/03/2014 - Comments

By Chris Williams: While Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been talking a lot recently about wanting to see Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) and Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) fight on the undercard of his May 3rd fight, Showtime Sports vice president Stephen Espinoza is doubtful that the Khan vs. Broner fight will take place. Espinoza notes that Broner plans on moving down to 140, while Amir is moving up to 147 for his next fight. Espinoza thinks that will get in the way of the Broner-Khan fight from taking place.

Espinoza also said this on his social media site: “Khan wants to fight at 147 & Broner at 140. 144 doesn’t help either of them.”

It almost seems like Espinoza doesn’t want to see the Broner-Khan fight take place, doesn’t it? From the way Broner and Khan has have been talking recently, they both seem interested in fighting each other. Khan seems to be a lot more interested in the fight than Broner, though. It’s possible that Broner might use the weight issues as a reason to not take the fight. But Khan wants the fight enough to where he might even be receptive to dropping back down to 140 to make it happen.

If Mayweather pushes both Broner and Khan to fight at 144, which he already spoke about, then it’s very possible that they’ll agree to do this out of respect for Mayweather.

As for Espinoza, he might be interested in not having Broner or Khan used up in one big fight rather than keeping them both winning in separate fights. Another loss for either one of these guys will hurt their market value and make bring in smaller ratings for Showtime. Khan has lost 2 out of his last four fights and hasn’t beaten a good opponent in many years since 2011. Broner badly lost his last fight against Marcos Maidana, and he’s now shown the kind of talent that suggests that he’ll be successful at 147 or even 140. Broner in moving down in weight to 140 will still be a problem for him because Lucas Matthysse and Danny Garcia are essentially welterweights that drain themselves down to make 140. After they rehydrate, they’re junior middleweights. Broner isn’t going to be able to beat either of them unless he can pick up some hand speed and become more mobile in the future.

Mayweather will need to keep applying pressure on Broner and Khan if he wants to have them on his undercard, because it doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to count on Espinoza for being receptive to the idea. Broner doesn’t have as much to gain by fighting Khan as Mayweather does, because Broner isn’t interested in fighting Mayweather. He can’t offer Broner a fight if he beats Khan, because Broner has no interest in fighting him. The only reason why Broner would want to fight Khan is just to gain fans and to take advantage of the publicity he’ll receive by fighting on Mayweather’s undercard.



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