By Allan Fox: John Molina, who is no strange to Adrien Broner (30-2, 22 KOs), says all Broner did in his fight last Saturday night against Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) was hold and run. He was surprised then that Broner came up empty in losing a 12 round decision to Porter.
Molina felt that referee Tony Weeks should have taken points off from Broner earlier in the fight due to the constant holding he was doing in the fight. Indeed, Broner wasn’t just occasionally holding. He was holding each time Porter came inside looking to land shots and he felt that it was a strategy that Broner was using in order to keep Porter from being able to fight his game.
Molina went on to say that Broner did the same kind of holding in their fight, but instead of the referee Robert Byrd doing something about the holding, he wound up warning Molina for coming forward with his head down.
Molina thought it was really strange that Byrd was telling him to raise his head up, because he feels that’s not the way you’re supposed to fight at the professional level by holding your head up so that someone can hit you. Molina felt handcuffed in the Broner fight because of the way the referee was letting Broner get away with constant holding.
“Tony Weeks finally stepped up and took a point, because all Broner does is hold and run, hold and run,” Molina said to Fighthype. “All Broner was doing was holding, holding and holding. He didn’t want to mix it up. The difference was Porter kept coming. Broner was pushing, and leaning with his forearms. Broner did come alive in the 11th round and was more aggressive. Had he done that from the jump street maybe the fight would have been more competitive,” Molina said.
It’s going to be up to Broner to show that he can change his fighting style in the future. Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants him to fight Porter in an immediate rematch, but if Broner can’t fight any different than he did last Saturday, then it makes no difference if they fight again.
Porter will beat Broner again due to his aggressiveness and his superior inside game. If Broner can stop holding as much, he’ll improve his game considerably, but he’s not likely to do any better against Porter because he also needs to learn how to fight on the inside like Porter does. That’s not something that Broner is going to be able to do in just one training camp. It takes a considerable amount of time for a fighter to learn how to be a good inside fighter, and I don’t think Broner can learn how to do that quickly.
Broner is going to keep getting chances to fight in high profile cards because he brings in a lot of fans. However, he doesn’t appear to be cut out for fighting at welterweight or light welterweight. He’s likely to have further problems in the future when he’s matched up tough in those weight classes.
This was the second time that Broner has stepped up in his career against a good fighter and he lost both fights. It suggests that Broner is a good contender level fighter at 140 and 147, but not championship material.
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