Broner just needs to make small changes and he’ll be in HOF, says Mayweather

By Boxing News - 06/23/2015 - Comments

broner565656By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. isn’t abandoning ship on Adrien Broner (30-2, 22 KOs) after his loss to Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) over last weekend. Mayweather thinks that the 25-year-old Broner just needs to make some small changes to his fighting style for him to be in the Hall of Fame one of these days.

I don’t think Mayweather would have a lot of arguments from fans about Broner needing changes to his game. Where Mayweather might find some resistance is in how many changes that Broner needs. Some fans think Broner needs quite a bit, but Mayweather feels that Broner can improve dramatically with only small changed.

Broner needs to throw more punches. If he can do at least that, he might stop losing every time he steps up against a good fighter. Broner can beat the B and C level fighters with his flawed fighting style, but to beat the Marcos Maidana, Porter, Kell Brook, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse and Amir Khan types, he’s going to need to change his game.

Broner might want to give up on being a counter puncher, and instead pattern himself after the high volume punchers like Maidana. Broner seemed to do really well in the 12th round last Saturday when he went on the attack mode and threw a lot of shots.

“It wasn’t like Shawn Porter did nothing super impressive,” Mayweather said. “He just waited until the last minute. Anybody is capable of having a bad night.”
It wasn’t so much of a bad night. It was more of like a typical night for Broner in terms of the way he normally fights.

The difference was that he was facing a good A-level fighter in Shawn Porter, who wasn’t going to be beaten by a guy only throwing 26 punches per round. You’ve got to do better than that to beat a fighter like Porter. Broner and his trainer Mike Stafford should have realized early on that in order to beat Porter, they would need to increase Broner’s punch output by double to triple what he’s done in the past.

This meant that instead of Broner averaging only 25 punches per round, he was going to need to throw 50 to 75 per round to get the win. Broner should be able to do something like that. He’s only 25, and he started out at super featherweight, where fighters routinely throw 100 punches per round.

I believe that Broner needs to give up on trying to fight like Mayweather by using counter punching all the time. That style doesn’t work well for Broner because he doesn’t have the same kind of reflexes as Mayweather does. That’s why Broner needs to change his style to become another Lucas Matthysse or Maidana type of fighter. I think he’s at his best when he’s coming forward throwing a lot of punches. Broner needs to stop moving and holding so much because that doesn’t help him win.

“He’s still learning. All Adrien has to do is just get more focused, make some small changes, and he can be a Hall of Famer,” Mayweather said. “He’s not the fake Floyd Mayweather.”

I don’t think Broner is going to be in the Hall of Fame based on how he’s been fighting since he turned pro, but if he makes big changes to his game, he could improve enough to get to the Hall. But he’s got to have better stamina, throw more punches and be a lot more aggressive than he’s been thus far.



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