Broner vs. Molina: Adrien vowing to become world champion at 140

By Boxing News - 02/04/2015 - Comments

broner#1By Allan Fox: After a year of taking soft fights at light welterweight, Adrien Broner (29-1, 22 KOs) will be taking a step up in class against lightweight slugger John Molina (27-5, 22 KOs) on March 7th on NBC’s series called “Premier Boxing Champions” at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Broner, 26, sees the Molina fight as bringing him a step closer to winning a 140 pound title. Broner has already won world titles at 130, 135 and 147. Broner’s time as the IBF welterweight champion was short, as he was beaten soundly by Marcos Maidana in a fight in September 2013.

Broner was no match for the huge power shots that Maidana kept nailing him with throughout the fight. Broner did hurt Maidana briefly after hitting him after the bell ending the 11th, but he wasn’t able to add to that in the 12th round.

“I definitely will be world champion at 140 pounds one day, “but I have to win this fight in order for that to happen,” Broner said via RingTV.com. “I’m still a lightweight. I’m going to 140 pounds now and it will show March 7. My main task is getting my victory and looking good doing that. I just hope John Molina’s ready. It’s going to be fun.”

Broner is already fighting at light welterweight. His bout last year against Emmanuel Taylor took place at 140, and Broner looked nothing short of terrible in that fight. He spent much of the bout with his back againt the ropes, and he was outworked frequently by Taylor.

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It wasn’t until Taylor ran out of gas in the last four rounds that Broner was able to come on and take the last four rounds. If not for that, Broner would have lost the fight. As it is the fight was a close one in which Broner failed to show that he was much better than Taylor.

Broner says he still wants to avenge his loss to Maidana. However, it’s doubtful that Broner’s adviser Al Haymon will allow him a shot at facing Maidana again, because Haymon is very careful in the kinds of matches that he makes for his fighters. If Haymon thinks Broner has a good chance of losing to Maidana then you can bet that he’ll make sure that he doesn’t face him.

The 140 pound division has some very solid fighters in Chris Algieri, Ruslan Provodnikov, Jessie Vargas, Danny Garcia, Viktor Postol, Lamont Peterson and Lucas Matthysse. It’s unclear whether Broner can beat any of those guys. It’s not that Broner doesn’t have a lot of talent. It’s that those guys appear to be better fighters than Broner, and would likely drop him in the same way that Miadana did.

Molina Jr is a really big puncher as we saw in his fight against Lucas Matthysse a year ago. Molina knocked Matthysse down twice in the fight. To his credit, Matthysse was able to come back and take the fight to Molina Jr until stopping him in the 11th. If Molina is able to land his big power shots against Broner the way that Taylor and Maidana did, it’s very probable that he’ll send Broner down to defeat.



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