By Allan Fox: Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) will be putting his reputation on the line next month against Carlos Molina (17-1-1, 7 KO’s) in a fight that Broner cannot afford to lose on May 3rd on the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana fight card. A loss for Broner in this fight will be a huge blow to his career. At 24, it certainly won’t be over for Broner if he loses to Molina, but it’ll make things very difficult for Golden Boy Promotions to rebuild his career. They’re already trying to rebuild his career by matching him against the 5’5” Molina following Broner’s loss to Marcos Maidana last December.
Broner needs to win in a manner that makes fans forget about his loss to Maidana. This is what this fight is all about. Broner needs to win in such a decisive manner that fans will forget the loss to Maidana, and they’ll start jumping on board the Broner train again. All Broner needs is the backing of the casual boxing fans, and a good win over Molina to bring him right back where he was before his devastating loss to Maidana. Molina is the first step back for Broner in his return to the top.
Molina isn’t a major player at 140, and he’s just a decent 2nd tier guy that Golden Boy Promotions pulled off his couch to face Broner on the card. Molina isn’t supposed to win this fight. If they wanted to have a real toss up fight, Golden Boy would have matched Broner against Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, or Lucas Matthysse. Golden Boy could have easily made those fights, because they promote all of those guys, but they chose not to match Broner tough this time. But that doesn’t mean that Broner might not still lose. Maidana showed pretty clearly that Broner has severe limitations in terms of his speed, power and movement.
Broner is a static fighter when he needs to be moving around the ring to avoid getting hit. If Broner is unable to move in his fight against Molina next month then this is something that Molina will be able to take advantage of. He showed in his last fight against Amir Khan in 2012 that he can throw a lot of punches with better power than his resume would have you believe. Molina was never hurt by Khan in that fight.
His skin gave out from the fast shots that Khan was hitting him with, and that’s why the fight was eventually halted in the 10th. Molina didn’t have a stationary target in the Khan fight, because his trainer Virgil Hunter had him moving around the ring a lot to avoid his attacks. Broner is too slow on his feet and too proud to move around the ring the way that Khan did when he fought Molina, and so we should see him try and beat Molina in a toe-to-toe battle.
This will be Broner’s first fight at 140, and he should be able to excel in this weight class as long as Golden Boy is careful with the opposition that they put him in with.
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