By Dan Ambrose: 32-year-old light welterweight John Molina (27-5, 22 KOs) will be facing former three division world champion Adrien Broner (29-1, 22 KOs) on March 7th on NBC at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Broner, 25, is predicting a knockout victory over the hard hitting Molina, although it’s hard to see that happening in light of Broner’s recent performances.
Broner’s adviser Al Haymon is taking a calculated risk in putting him in with Molina because this is a fight where things could go very wrong for Broner if he can’t stay on his feet after getting nailed by Molina’s shots.
Marcos Maidana had Broner down twice in their fight in 2013. Since then, Broner has been backed off from stiff competition in moving down to light welterweight and facing Carlos Molina and Emmanuel Taylor. Broner looked good against neither of those guys, and now he’s taking on someone with better power than them in Molina. This could be bad for Broner.
“This will be my third fight at 140 and it definitely feels good. I’ve been getting stronger and stronger at this weight because, you know, I had been a 135-pounder forever,” Broner said via RingTV.com. “But I’ve finally grown into the weight. I think that this will be the first time that I will feel fully comfortable at this weight and I feel like I’m going to stop John Molina. Every fighter is tough and he’s a tough cookie but I’ve got a lot of milk to soften him up.”
Broner didn’t look very strong in his last fight against Emmanuel Taylor last September. Broner was hit a lot in that fight, and he was resting too much against the ropes, as if he didn’t have the stamina to stand and trade with Taylor. If Broner retreats to the ropes like that against Molina then it could be bad for Broner. Molina will keep Broner there and unload everything but the kitchen sink on him.
Broner is reluctant to go back down to lightweight, but he may have no other choice but to go back down if he gets beaten again. He didn’t carry his power to this division, and he just doesn’t seem to belong. There are clearly better fighters than Molina at 140, such as Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson, Lucas Matthysse, Ruslan Provodnikov and Chris Algieri.
Broner is going to need to prove that can beat those guys. He can’t be strung along for the remainder of his career by his adviser matching him against only guys that he can beat. As it is, Broner barely beat his last opponent Emmanuel Taylor, and that’s disappointing if you’re a Broner fan.
Also on the Broner-Molina card will be WBA interim welterweight champion Keith Thurman defending his title against former two division world champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. This is a fight that Thurman figures to win if he can stay on his bike long enough to keep from getting hit with too many of Guerrero’s shots. If Guerrero can back Thurman up to the ropes and work him over like he did Andre Berto, he could expose Thurman’s less than sturdy chin.
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