https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5YS1MKcQT0
By Allan Fox: Former three division world champion Adrien Broner (30-2, 22 KOs) is a man on a mission as he approaches his fight this Saturday night against 32-year-old Russian Khabib Allakhverdiev (19-1, 9 KOs) in their fight for the vacant WBA World super lightweight title on HBO championship Boxing at the U.S. Bank Arena, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Broner, 26, says he wants to start taking the sport more seriously now that he’s 26, and he wants to learn from his recent losses to Shawn Porter and Marcos Maidana. Broner has lost two out of his last five fights, and his career is on the brink of failure.
Broner says he’s still a student of the game, but right now he’s a failing student. Broner has previously won three world titles in three different divisions in the past, but he did that against weak opposition in beating Vincente Martinez Rodriguez to win the WBO super featherweight title, Antonio DeMarco to capture the WBC lightweight title, and Paulie Malignaggi to win the WBA welterweight title.
Broner never had to fight really good fighters to win his titles in different divisions. It was always a case of Broner beating vulnerable paper champions instead of the best guy in each division. Instead of Broner fighting Orlando Salido to win his super featherweight title, he fights a little known fighter named Rodriguez from Argentina.
Instead of Broner fighting Terence Crawford for his WBC lightweight title, he faces DeMarco. Instead of Broner fighting Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, or Shawn Porter for his WBA welterweight title, he faces Malignaggi. Broner had it easy against paper champions, and now he’s about to have it easy again by fighting Allakhverdiev for the vacant WBA “regular” 140lb title this Saturday instead of Broner fighting Lucas Matthysse, Ruslan Provodnikov, Terence Crawford, Amir Iman, Viktor Postol or Lamont Peterson.
“I’ve got something to prove to myself,” Broner said to Showtime Sports. “I’m on a mission, and I won’t talk to nobody until my mission is complete. When you get so far in doing things your way, sometimes you don’t see what you’ve got to change until something happens like a loss. Take your career seriously. Of course, I’m always going to be A.B, Adrien Broner. Where I am in the game right now? I’m still a student. I have so much more to do. I’ve already accomplished a lot at a young age, but I still have so much more to do. I’m still learning. I was too accessible. I was too easy to reach. I’ve got a big heart, and I always want to make everybody feel good or make everybody happy. I’ve come to realize that if it’s not my wife and my kids, that’s all that matters, and I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. For me and my family, and my kids, that’ it. I feel like I was selling myself short. I wasn’t getting top dollar out of the performances that I’ve been putting on. You’ve got to learn from your mistakes, then you understand, and you know why you’re losing. Then you can fix it. This next half of my career I’m going to be the A.B that’s about business, and about boxing. Winning this fourth world title in my fourth weight class is important. Making history at the age of 26, it’s a big move for me, and I’m going for it. The path I’m on, anybody in my weight right now is in big trouble,” Broner said.
Unless Broner has improved mightily from his recent loss to Porter last June, I don’t think the other top light welterweights have anything to fear from him, not that he’ll be fighting any of them. It’s likely that even if Broner beats Allakhverdiev on Saturday, he won’t be fighting the good contenders unless they work their way to the No.1 mandatory spot, and even then, they’ll likely need to wait a good amount of time before they get a shot against Broner.
It’s very probable that Broner will milk his WBA title against beatable fringe level fighters like the ones he’d been facing recently in Carlos Molina, Emmanuel Taylor and John Molina. There likely isn’t going to be any dangerous fights for Broner once he wins the WBA title.
Right now, Broner has been humbled due to his loss to Porter. But once Broner has the WBA title in his possession and he’s defending the title against the largely weak opposition that his adviser Al Haymon sets up for him, then I suspect we’re going to see the cocky Broner reemerge, and he’ll act as if he’s a star in the sport while beating obscure over-matched contenders rather than taking on the likes of Iman, Matthysse, Postol, Provonikov, Crawford or Peterson.
Broner says he’s still not going to talk to the media until after he’s captured the WBA 140lb title on Saturday. I guess the small two minute video clip that Showtime Sports was one of the rare exceptions in Broner speaking to the media. I wonder what Showtime had to do in order to get Broner to agree to the small video interview?
It’s got to be hard for Showtime to have a fighter they’re paying a lot of money to fight on their network refusing to do interviews, and to speak during the press conference, unless you count speaking one word as speaking.
If Broner does this kind of thing in the future for other fights he has on Showtime, it’s going to be difficult for him to build up any of those fights, especially if his opposition is going to revert back to the Emmanuel Taylor, Carlos Molina and John Molina types once he wins the WBA light welterweight title.
With Broner’s comment about the other fighters in the 140lb weight class needing to stay out of his way, I think it’s more of a case of Broner likely staying out of their way. Broner has been fighting in the light welterweight division for close to two years now, and he’s still not fought Crawford, Provodnikov, Matthysse, Iman or Peterson. How do you go two years without fighting those guys if you’re supposed to be the best in the division?
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