By Chris Williams: An irritated looking Adrien Broner walked out of his press conference earlier on Monday when he was being asked to do pose for photos with challenger Ashley Theophane in their kickoff press conference at the W Hotel Washington, D.C. – Altitude Room.
Broner was supposed to stay and have more photos taken and give interviews to the media in order to build interest in his first title defense of his WBA 140lb belt against Theophane on April 1 at the DC Armory in Washington, DC.
After Broner took off, Floyd Mayweather Jr, the promoter for Theophane, was left to answer questions from the media about why Broner bailed on the press conference. Mayweather did his best job of being diplomatic and not throwing Broner under the bus for him having left his own press conference.
Broner is the A-side in the fight, and it’s normal for A-side fighters to leave their own press conferences. It was a self-defeating move by Broner.
“Adrien is a very young and explosive fighter. He’s a force in boxing right now. Ashley Theophane is a guy that came from the U.K. with a dream. His dream was to be world champion one day. Same dream I had. He’s a very humble, hungry and dedicated fighter,” Mayweather said via espn.com. “I don’t think this is going to be an easy fight for Adrien. I’ll tell both guys to push themselves to the limit and give fans what they want to see.”
Broner didn’t look like he wanted to show Theophane any respect for some reason during the press conference. Broner’s attitude seemed to suggest that Theophane didn’t even rate the fight. If that was the case, then Broner shouldn’t have agreed to fight him. Theophane isn’t ranked as a top tier fighter, and Broner could have easily told his adviser Al Haymon to find himself someone else.
It looked like to me that Broner didn’t like the idea of Theophane being given a chance by Mayweather to beat him. I think that made Broner upset because he values Mayweather’s opinion, and here he is the promoter for his fighter Theophane talking up his abilities like a good promoter would do.
Some boxing fans believe that Broner wants to put himself in as the guy that replaces Mayweather, even though he hasn’t shown the ability as of yet to be that fighter. It perhaps doesn’t sit too well with Broner that a fighter like the 35-year-old Theophane is being given a chance to win this fight on April 1 and dethrone him.
“I’m representing Floyd Mayweather. He has my back and he believes in me,” Theophane said. “He believes I can win and that’s extra motivation. It’s been a long journey as a professional and I have to thank Floyd for giving me this chance. I know he’s got talent. But he can be beat. He’s vulnerable, very vulnerable.”
Broner is vulnerable against fighters that throw a lot of punches and put a lot of pressure on him. Shawn Porter and Marcos Maidana both beat Broner by pressuring him and throwing a lot of punches. However, they both had excellent punching power and good size going for them.
Theophane is not a pressure fighter, and he’s not a really big puncher. He’s also not very big. It’s going to be hard for him to duplicate the efforts of Porter and Maidana without having their assets.
“There are many different things we’re working on to neutralize Broner and keep up with his quickness,” Theophane said. “I believe I can match him. He does a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong. Adrien Broner can be beat and he has been. We’re working hard. At the end of the day this is my career-defining fight.”
Broner seems he didn’t want Theophane to talk up his game. Maybe Broner was hoping that Theophane would act submissive and not say anything substantial at the press conference. You can’t blame Theophane for wanting to win the fight. If Broner wanted a lamb to fight, then he should have told Haymon to specifically order a lamb that wouldn’t make a peep during the press conferences. But that’s not how the Mayweather promoted Theophane is going to conduct himself. He’s going to speak his mind. Broner is going to have to learn to deal with that otherwise he’s going to mess up his own promotion by walking out of his press conferences.
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