Theophane sees win No.40 against Broner

By Boxing News - 10/21/2015 - Comments

1-LR_BRONERALLAKHVERDIEV-PRESSER-1805By Scott Gilfoid: 35-year-old former British light welterweight champion Ashley Theophane (39-6-1, 11 KOs) tweeted today that he’ll be picking up his 40th win of his career against newly crowned WBA World light welterweight champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (31-2, 23 KOs.

It’s unknown when the Broner-Theophane fight will take place or if it will happen at all. We do know that Floyd Mayweather Jr wants Broner to throw a bone to the non-top 15 ranked Theophane to give him a title shot, even though he’s not ranked in the top 15.

Broner seems to be on board with taking the fight, and is saying that he’s going to fight whoever he wants. If this means that Broner will be fighting non-world level fighters like Theophane, then he should be able to hold onto his WBA 140lb title for a long, long time. I just don’t know that the World Boxing Association’s rules will allow for Broner to fight 2nd tier fighters during his reign as their champion.

Anything is possible. The WBA is the sanctioning body that has as many as three champions in some of their weight classes, so they might look the other way if Broner decides to face 2nd tier guys like Theophane while holding their title. Personally, I don’t think it’s a good move career-wise, because Broner could mess up his television ratings if he only faces fodder opposition instead of fighters that the casual/hardcore fans are familiar with.

To be sure, the hardcore fans have heard of Theophane, but he’s not a guy that is even remotely popular.


Broner had this to say about Theophane after his recently 12th round knockout win over Khabib Allakhverdiev earlier this month on October 3rd:

“I’m going to fight who I want to fight and when I want to fight them. You know, they say my big bro, the one, the only Floyd Mayweather, he say he got a fighter that he feels like he can beat me. I think his name is Ashley, but if that is true, this is what you do, big bro, because bosses talk to bosses. You put Ashley on one of your private jets, bring him to come see me.”

I think I speak for a lot of boxing fans here when I say I don’t think there is any demand for a fight between Broner and Theophane. That’s just a really, really poor fight for Broner. I hope there’s somebody in Broner’s management team with his head screwed on correctly that can take charge of his match-making and steer him towards a fight that would be a better career move for him, because a move like that would be dropping Broner down to the lower beginning stages level of his career if he were to take on an opponent like Theophane.

Just because Mayweather took an easy soft job in Andre Berto at the end of his career doesn’t mean that Broner should copy what he’s doing. Mayweather is rumored to have lost out on a ton of money in terms of lost PPV revenue by taking the fight with Berto.

If Broner doesn’t care about becoming a popular fighter, then by all means he should face Theophane and whoever else he can find from the 2nd tier for him to defend his title against. I just don’t think it sets a good example for Broner as the new WBA champion. He should be rising up instead of sinking downwards. It’s bad enough that Broner fought an arguably soft job in Khabib Allakhverdiev for the WBA light welterweight title rather than Amir Iman or Jose Benavidez.

“I don’t give a [expletive] who talk bad about me cause when it’s all over with my name will be in the history books as one of the best EVER!!!” Broner said on his Twitter.
“4x world champion in 4 different weight divisions at the age of 26. #NoStuntingJustStatingFacts. People tell me all the time how coaches in that gym talk bad about me but that’s cool cause if they was training me they will be [expletive] riding. I ain’t go sit and act like I don’t hear how MFS talk [expletive] about me I’m go let it be known. No disrespect to Floyd but a lot of his fighters hate on me but [expletive] them I’m RICH!!”

Theophane held the British 140lbt title from 2011 to 2012 until losing it to Darren Hamilton, who then lost the title to Curtis Woodhouse. He in turn lost to Willie Limond. So wat we’re basically talking about in Theophane is a fighter slightly below the class of Limond and Hamilton, aren’t we? So then why is Broner interested in fighting Theophane? I don’t understand it. Hopefully the WBA puts their foot down and doesn’t let the mismatch take place.



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