(Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME) By Gav Duthie: After another average Adrien Broner performance on Saturday in winning a close decision against Emmanuel Taylor he continues to have question marks over his star quality as he claws his way back to the top after his loss to Marcos Maidana. With Broner’s relaxed, dismissive attitude towards Emmanuel Taylor it would be easy to forget that he actually lost a fight recently.
It brings me to question whether Broner will be the next Floyd Mayweather Jr or will he be more like a Zab Judah. Furthermore how does he fair against the current champions in the 140 lb division.
95% of fighters would be delighted to be called the next Zab Judah. He is a 5 time world champion and has had some great nights over the years. The point is that in terms of talent there is not a huge difference between Judah and Mayweather but Floyd has never lost and Zab has lost 9 times. I put most of this down to lack of focus, desire, determination and arrogance rather than ability. I see the same potential problems with Broner as I did Judah. Zab has taken too many opponents very lightly and none more than his first loss versus Kostya Tszyu. Judah was the big favourite and boxed beautifully in the first round. He decided however it was OK to let Tszyu walk him down and stroll about the ring with his hands low, one straight right hand and its over and the birth of the famous chicken dance and physical assault on referee Jay Nady. Broner seems to do the same, the fight plan is always the same. He simply thinks he is better but that is not always enough.
It’s OK if Broner acts like he isn’t bothered about his opponents, Mayweather also does this but the showmanship needs to stop in the ring like it does with Floyd. How out of shape Broner gets between fights is scary and with his lack of footwork he needs to be able to work harder to keep up with the tempo of fighters like Matthyse and Peterson. I’m reminded a little bit of when it looked like Judah was back on top after knocking out Cory Spinks and then he lost to Carlos Baldomir. Zab just like Broner couldn’t adjust in the fight unlike Floyd did against Maidana. Floyd see’s what is going on, the big picture and he analyses what is happening whilst he is fighting. I have my doubts as to whether Broner can do this. Can he fight in a different way. His talent may not be in question but his ring IQ is a different story. We have all heard and seen various instances of Mayweather being dominated in sparring (Spadafora, Morales etc) but he is always learning, honing his skills, he doesn’t just turn up and dominate he works so hard and i’m not sure Broner has that in him.
The future
He has already mentioned fighting Maidana again after this weekend and he has dropped Matthyse’s name in too post fight. His team should steer him well clear of the likes of Maidana and anyone at 147 for that matter. Welterweight is probably the strongest division in boxing today and Broner probably isn’t strong enough at present to box there. This doesn’t mean that he is going to dominate Light welterweight either though and I think Petersen is the fight that has a better risk/reward ratio than Matthyse.
How would he fair against the counter punching of Danny Garcia, the movement of Chris Algieri and the determination of Lamont Peterson. Even some of the other contenders like Viktor Postol, Lucas Matthyse and Ruslan Provodnikov would present a strong challenge to Broner at present. This is his time to prove to us how good he really is.
Comments are closed.