By Prof Johny: By Prof Johny: The sport of Boxing appears to be making a comeback, it is now on free network television thanks to Al Haymon’s PBC boxing series, the promotional companies appear to have ended their cold wars, and the recent co-hosted Showtime with HBO Floyd Mayweather Jr. – Manny Pacquiao event was further evidence all the major players are committed to bringing the boxing industry back to the forefront of the sporting world.
However the impending retirement of both Mayweather and Pacquiao will leave us without the only two true PPV worthy fighters in the sport. By all accounts there are no other fighters today who can realistically replace these two great champions. Some names people like to throw around include in no particular order of importance: Canelo Alvarez, Adrien Broner, Deontay Wilder, Sergey Kovalev, and Gennady Golovkin. These fighters in my mind are the most likely to come to the forefront of PPV boxing. They all share the common ability to entertain, while some are not undefeated, I do not believe it really matters. All the greatest fighters of every generation save Mayweather have had blemishes on their record, Ali, Foreman, the fabulous four “Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Durran”, Tyson, De-La Hoya, Jones Jr, Hopkins… the list is endless. To be a great PPV fighter that the entire sporting community watches and appreciates, one does not have to have the 0 on the record. Getting back to my above list of Canelo etc, these fighters fight for the fans, they go for knockouts, and they are constantly trying to fight the best. While some of them might have had easy bounce back fights after their losses, they still took the toughest fights available and all made game efforts. I believe there will be stars at or around the 147 pound division, at or around the 168-175 pound divisions, and at heavyweight due to Wilder’s vast potential and the impending retirement of Klitschko.
Today I will discuss in a little more depth the potential of Adrien “The Problem” Broner, one of the most polarizing fighters out their today. Hopefully this is an intriguing article for comment on, regarding what you believe Broner’s potential to be.
Adrien Broner, love him or hate him, it’s hard not to want to watch him. No matter the outcome of his fights you know you are getting good entertainment value, and in the end of the day unless people are entertained, they will not come back to watch a second time. Broner’s record is of course blemished with the surprising defeat to Marcos Maidana on 2013. It was of course Broner’s second fight at 147, after he narrowly defeated Paulie Malignagi to capture his title belt. Broner came in cocky as ever, and was dropped by a vicious left hook in the second round, his first time ever tasting the canvas. Broner got back up, and turned the fight into a rather exciting affair, winning some of the later rounds as Maidana seemed to tire late. In the end of the day it might have made Broner a more popular fighter, as people seem to tune in more to fighters who they know can go down, a la Amir Khan. Following his loss to Maidana, Broner did take a few tune up fights, and really has yet to take on another true world level contender since, John Molina at 141 does not count despite his game efforts against Lucas Matthysse prior. Broner considers himself the next Floyd, he tries to fight like his “big brother”, no actual relation, as he mimics the left arm down, Philly shoulder roll with relatively high levels of success. He also has exceptionally fast hands, and has shown power on occasions. However, Broner’s biggest challenge has seemed to be his footwork, here is where the biggest differences between Broner and Floyd have appeared over time. Broner likes to stand more stationary when he fights, and does not use his feet to defend himself to nearly the same degree that Floyd does. For those who do not consider footwork defensive fighting, and call it running, something which I used to believe in, go the Youtube and watch some defensive fighting film studies that Wilson Kaydon has made, just type in Wilson Kaydon and it will come up. Broner is also signed with Al Haymon, who more and more appears to be taking over the entire boxing world with his very large stable of fighters, 150+ and counting. Due to this, Broner will have the ability to choose from a very large stable of fighters, and also get paid premium TV amounts to fight on network television, hence expanding his reach into the general public. Hopefully Broner will finally step it up again for his next fight and challenge for a title belt. His career is ticking away and the more belts and impressive wins he picks up will only help him become a PPV star sooner.
Some great opponents for Broner at his current weight of 140 would be Terrence Crawford, my personal #1 fighter at the 140 pound division. I see this being a very competitive and close fight, all though it has the potential to be very boring as each is a defensively minded counter puncher.
Shawn Porter: Porter blasted Malignaggi, and then consequently lost to Kell Brook. Porters an all action come forward fighter, compared to a mini Mike Tyson. Porter-Broner would be a very exciting fight, and since both fight with Al Haymon’s PBC series, a very makeable fight.
Broner-Khan: This is a fight that recently has been talked about as both fighters potential next matchup. I feel in this fight Khan has a lot more to win then does Broner. Khan has been exposed a number of times, and failed to avenge them. How can someone who got decimated by average top level fighters consider himself worthy of fighting Mayweather? If Khan beats Broner he will be worthy in my eye, Broner is a very good test for Khan to show the world just how good he really is. Broner Khan as a fight would be almost PPV worthy, but both fighters would gain much more in the long run if they made it either premium Showtime or network television on PBC. This fight would be a very interesting matchup, both possess very good speed, both have been down before, and both are very good technical boxers.
Broner-Pacquiao: If Pacquiao intends to continue fighting, something I do not much care to see after his dismal performance against Mayweather, then he should seriously look at fighting Floyds “baby brother” Adrien Broner. This is a very PPV worthy match, and could give Broner the break out PPV star creating performance he needs if he really wants to be considered the next Floyd. I see this as a very likely fight moving forward. Manny has mentioned he wants to move down in weight possibly to 140, Broner says he will fight at 140 or 147. I see this as being a much better fight then the recent Pacquiao vs Mayweather bore we all watched May 2. Due to Broner’s rather limited footwork, I see him standing in the pocket a lot more then did Floyd, and hence turning it into a much more exciting fight. If Manny was to win this fight, I could see a potential rematch with Floyd being called for since Manny supposedly was fighting at 60%. The only way for Manny to credibly get a rematch, and the easiest way for Broner to become a superstar lies with the two of them facing each other for their next fight. Boxer Adrien Broner from Cincinnati, Ohio celebrates after defeating Gavin Rees from Newport, Wales during their WBC Lightweight title bout in Atlantic City”
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