Adrien Broner vs. Shawn Porter on June 20th at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV

By Boxing News - 05/11/2015 - Comments

broner44442222By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (25-1-1, 16 KOs) will be fighting former three division belt holder Adrien Broner (30-1, 22 KOs) in a catch-weight of 144-145 pounds on June 20th at the MGM Grand in Las Vega, Nevada, according to news from the Los Angeles Times.

Broner, 25, had previously been planning on fighting on that date in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. But clearly a fight against Porter is perfect for a city like Las Vegas.

The Broner-Porter fight will be televised on NBC on Premier Boxing Champions.

Broner will need to come up in weight four to five pounds from the light welterweight division where he’s currently fighting. Porter, who started his career out as a junior middleweight division, will likely have the weight advantage over Broner, but probably not as much as Marcos Maidana did in his fight against Broner in 2013. As long as Broner isn’t outweighed by a significant amount of weight, he should have a good chance of winning.

Porter has the same kind of aggressive smothering style that Maidana possesses. That could be bad for Broner if he’s not ready to deal with a lot of inside pressure from Porter. Kell Brook was able to defeat Porter by tying him up each time he came in close to try and land his shots. When they were on the outside, Brook was able to use his longer reach to land jabs and right hands.

It was still a very close fight at the end and you could have given it to either fighter. For Broner to defeat Porter, he’s going to need to increase his work rate, use more movement, and tie him up occasionally. Someone like Floyd Mayweather Jr. would have no problems beating the likes of Porter, but that’s because he wouldn’t stand stationary for 12 rounds. He would use movement and a lot of hard jabs to keep Porter from being able to set up his offense on the inside. I’m not sure if Broner will be able to do that because he’s really flat-footed and doesn’t move nearly as well as Mayweather does. He also doesn’t have his hand speed.

Porter defeated Erick Bone by a 5th round knockout last March. It was kind of a sloppy performance by Porter until he hurt Bone and took him out. Porter can’t be sloppy like that against Broner if he wants to get the win because Broner will make him pay.

Broner had one of his better performances last March in beating a reluctant John Molina by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. Molina seemed afraid to let his hands go for fear of being countered by Broner.



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