Adrien Broner vs. Adrian Granados next Saturday night

By Boxing News - 02/11/2017 - Comments

Image: Adrien Broner vs. Adrian Granados next Saturday night

By Jeff Aranow: #4 WBC light welterweight contender Adrien Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) will be fighting next Saturday night on February 18 against #4 WBA, #7 WBC Adrian Granados (18-4-2, 12 KOs) in what shapes up to be a competitive match-up on Showtime Championship Boxing at the Cintas Center, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Broner-Granados fight was originally supposed to be a catch-weight at 142lbs, but the weight has reportedly been moved up to 147 at the request of Team Broner. He needed to weight to be increased.

In looking at recent video of Broner working out this week, he looks like he’s carrying around some excess fat on his frame. As big as Broner looks, it’s not surprising that the weight for the fight has been increased to 147. Hopefully, Broner can make this weight, because he still looks like he’s going to need drop some weight for him to get down to 147.

Just how heavy Broner will be when he enters the ring on Saturday night is anyone’s guess. I wouldn’t be surprised if Broner is near 160. He doesn’t look like he trained hard enough for this match.

If Broner is going to stay in the light welterweight division, then he’s going to need to put more effort in staying as low as possible so that he can make the 140lb limit for the important fights such as ones involving titles. The Broner-Granados fight isn’t a title fight, so it’s less important for the fight to be at 140. Still, if Broner is going to be fighting at welterweight, then he needs to be fighting guys from that division rather than dragging up 140-pounders like Granados.

Granados wants to beat Broner, because he feels that a win over the 27-year-old will change his life. Granados already pulled off a huge upset in defeating Amir Imam by an 8th round knockout in 2015 in an impressive win. Imam was seen as a future world champion, and Granados ended up wearing him down and stopping him.

“It would be a huge victory for me,” said Granados. “I definitely believe it could change my life and the life of my family and the life of my teammates. I plan on coming out with that victory. However, I understand the odds and the way that they’re stacking it up,” said Granados.

Broner is a good fighter, but he’s not a huge puncher and he’s not very fast of hand. Broner tends to win his fights by throwing a lot of combinations. When Broner was fighting at featherweight, he was a big puncher in that weight class mostly because of all the weight that he would put on after he rehydrated. The weight gain that he would put on after he would make weight would help him score knockouts that he doesn’t seem capable of doing now that he’s moved up to the 140 and 147lb divisions.

Broner must win this fight against Granados if he wants to keep his career moving forward. Broner has already been beaten by Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter. Losing to those guys wasn’t fatal for Broner’s career, but if he gets beaten by Granados, it could be the final nail on the coffin of his career.

I don’t know if Broner could come back from a loss to Granados, because there are a lot of arguably better fighters than him in the 140lb and of course in the 147lb. division. At this point, it’s unknown if Broner is going to be able to stay at 140. He might end up becoming another Saul Canelo Alvarez with him using his popularity to pull less popular fighters up in weight to fight them at catch-weights in the welterweight division. However, if Broner can’t even make the catch-weights he’s requesting, then it’s going to look funny if he pulls 140lb fighters up to 147 to fight rather than him just fighting the guys from the welterweight division. That’s what Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been doing since he moved up to 168. He’s been fighting 160lb fighters that he drags up to the 168lb division, and now he’s about to fight a catch-weight fighter in Canelo Alvarez at 164.5lbs on May 6.

“I’ve always been the B-side and always had the odds stacked up against me, so I just got to thrive in the underdog position and which I plan to yes, this is definitely the biggest fight of my career and I plan on taking full advantage of it,” said Granados. “I believe I’m the better fighter,” said Granados about Broner.