By Dan Ambrose: The recently jailed former four division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) was released from jail on Wednesday after doing 30-days for being three-hours late for his court date in Hamilton Country, in Ohio. Broner, 27, wants to fight in October against someone like WBA light welterweight champion Ricky Burns, according to RingTV.
Burns would be the perfect opponent for Broner to face if his manager Al Haymon can get him that fight. The two fighters had talked of wanting to face each other four years ago, but it never took place. Burns’ career quickly went downhill after that with several defeats.
Burns, 33, recently turned his career around in beating Michele Di Rocco by an 8th round knockout last May to win the vacant World Boxing Association light welterweight title. Burns doesn’t look any better than he was when he was getting beaten repeatedly by the likes of Terence Crawford, Dejan Zlaticanin and Omar Figueroa Jr. The only thing that’s changed is Burns facing weaker opposition nowadays. Broner would do well against Burns.
Broner has a court date on September 21 next month to stand trial for the charges that he has against him for a felony assault as well as an aggravated robbery from January 21. The charges will be dismissed if Broner’s victim doesn’t attend.
Broner’s trainer Mike Stafford told ringtv.com that they would like “a Ricky Burns type” opponent.
Last year, Broner was soundly beaten by Shawn Porter by a 12 round unanimous decision in June 2015. Broner has since won his last two fights against Khabi Allakhverdiev and Ashley Theophane. Broner lost his WBA World light welterweight title when he failed to make weight for the Theophane fight. Broner still beat Theophane by a 9th round knockout last April, but he lost his WBA title for failing to make weight.
Broner gets really big after he rehydrates for his fights at light welterweight. It’s unclear whether he can still make weight for that division. Even if Haymon is able to get Broner a title shot against Burns at 140, it’s a big question mark whether Broner can make the weight. Never the less, Broner could still miss the weight, beat Burns, and then receive a lot of credit from the boxing fans for beating him.
Not winning the WBA title wouldn’t be a big deal for Broner, because he would receive credit from the fans for beating the 33-year-old Burns.
It doesn’t look like Broner is going to be the replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr. like he thought he was. Broner talked in the past of him grabbing the baton from Mayweather after he retired to become the next star in boxing. Mayweather has been retired for almost a year now, and Broner has done nothing other than beat one of Mayweather’s fighters in his stable in 35-year-old Theophane, who is little more than a fringe contender at best.
Broner doesn’t seem capable of beating the top fighters at 147, and he’s not going to be able to become a huge PPV star if he stays at 140, because there aren’t any big names in this division other than WBC/WBO champion Terence Crawford, who fights for Top Rank.
Broner isn’t likely going to ever fight Crawford as long as he’s with Top Rank. This means that Broner must move up to welterweight permanently, and try somehow to compete against the likes of Thurman, Porter and Danny Garcia.
A fight between Broner and Danny Garcia is a real possibility in the near future. It’s a decent level fight, but the winner of the contest would be seen by many boxing fans as a paper champion. Thurman is seen by a lot of fans as the real champion at welterweight. Unbeaten Errol Spence Jr. could be the guy that rules the 147lb division for a long time to come.
It won’t be good for Broner with Spence around. Spence will be like a giant vacuum in getting all the attention from the media soon and Broner will be a secondary figure if he can’t prove that he can beat him. It’s unclear whether Haymon would match Spence and Broner together. If he does, the logical conclusion of a fight like that will see Broner getting knocked down repeatedly and likely stopped in an embarrassing fashion.
Broner doesn’t have the size to move up to junior middleweight, so he’s stuck at a ceiling of 147 if he doesn’t want to fight the rest of his career at 140. Like I said, I don’t see Broner being able to make light welterweight on a consistent enough basis for him to stay in this weight class.