By Jeff Aranow: Adrien “The Problem” Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) has a very important fight tonight against one of the better fighters he’s faced lately in Adrian “Tigre” Granados (18-4-2, 12KOs) on Showtime Championship Boxing the Cintas Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. Broner needs to win and look good in doing so. He has a fighter that he should beat.
Granados is just a contender, and not someone that is going anywhere in the 140lb division.
Granados is not the best fighter in the 140lb division, and probably not even the 10th best fighter in the weight class. But it a step up for the 27-year-old Broner from his last two fights against Ashley Theophane and Khabib Allakhverdiev since he was beaten by Shawn Porter. It looks like Broner’s management is moving him in small increments upwards towards a title fight against likely WBA champion Ricky Burns.
That’s a safe fight for Broner, as he would have the power, speed and size advantage over Burns. One fighter that Broner probably won’t be facing anytime soon if ever is WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford, although his management at Top Rank would love that fight. Let’s get one thing clear. Broner is not going to face Crawford, and we might not ever see that fight take place.
The Broner vs. Granados fight comes down to these areas:
– Speed: Broner has a slight advantage in the hand speed department, but not enough to where it will really help him much. If Broner is going to win the fight tonight, it won’t be based off his hand speed advantage. He’s not really fast unfortunately. Broner fights like his mentor Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he doesn’t have any of his hand speed, reflexes or defensive skills.
– Power: This is an area that Broner has a clear advantage over Granados. The difference in punching power between the two fighters is fairly significant. Broner is definitely a bigger puncher compared to Granados. Broner isn’t a huge puncher, but he has respectable power. Granados is more of a volume puncher.
– Experience: Broner has the better experience against top level opposition. However, Broner has fought a lot of fighters that didn’t belong at the top when he was fighting at super featherweight and lightweight.
– Size: Broner is likely to rehydrate a great deal tonight and be the bigger guys inside the ring. Whether that helps him or not remains to be seen. Broner has been the bigger fighter in the pasts in his fights, and he’s not been overly impressive. But for the most part, Broner always wins when he’s got a size advantage over his opponents.
– Chin: Broner has been hurt in the past in taking hard shots from Maidana and Porter. Granados was knocked down in his fight against Felix Diaz in 2014. Granados was also knocked down by Frankie Gomez in 2011. Those are two respectable punchers. You can’t fault Granados for being dropped by those guys, but at the same time it does suggest that he can be hurt.
– Stamina: I’d have to say that Granados has the advantage in the stamina department. Broner gets tired late in his fights and needs to take a lot of rest breaks against the ropes. Granados doesn’t need to take breaks in his fights, as he continues to fight hard for the full 12 rounds of his fights without him needing rest breaks.
– Ring IQ: Both fighters are very smart inside the ring and I think this area is pretty even. Granados might be a tad bit smarter than Broner, as he doesn’t do stupid things like rest on the ropes and clinch a lot. Broner likes to rest against the ropes when he’s turned and when he’s under attack. There’s a certain amount of laziness and cockiness with Broner that has got him into trouble in his fights against Shawn Porter and Marcos Maidana. Broner gave both fights away by staying on the ropes for too long of a time. Maidana ended up knocking Broner down twice after backing up against the ropes.
– Mobility: Granados is the more mobile of the two. Broner is built like a wrestler and he doesn’t move well at all around the ring. Granados will have the advantage in the mobility department tonight, but I suspect he won’t move too much. Granados is more of the type to attack his opponents rather than to play it safe by moving a lot.
Prediction
Granados will be out-pointed by Broner. I don’t see a knockout occurring in this fight, because Granados has a good chin, and Broner won’t throw enough punches to get him out of there. Broner will dominate Granados with his size and power advantage tonight. Granados was picked for a reason by Broner’s management to fight him. He seen as someone that is vulnerable that he can beat. If Granados wasn’t vulnerable, then he likely wouldn’t have been selected. This fight is a tune-up for Broner to get him ready for a nice payday against Ricky Burns. They wouldn’t risk Broner by putting him in with someone good. It’s not to say that Granados isn’t a good fighter, because he certainly is a very good fighter. One thing that you have to be concerned with as far as Broner is concerned is the weight. He looked really thin at the weigh-in for him, and the reason for that is because of the weight loss. Broner tends to put on weight between fights. He’s been doing this for a while. He’s gotten away with it thus far, but for this fight, Broner looked thinner than usual. That tells you that he put too much weight on and he had to drain down in a big way to get to the 147lb limit. If Broner keeps doing this, he’ll have to move up to the 147lb division permanently. He might even eat himself out of that weight class too, and end up at 154. There’s no way that Broner will be able to exist that weight. The only way Broner will be able to continue on with his career to have any type of success is if he drags fighters up from 147 to 154 for him to fight. Broner has good boxing skills, but he’s not going to be able to compete with the best fighter sin the junior middleweight division. I think he’ll need to be very strategic with the guys he does end up facing if he eats his way to this division in the future. Frankly, I think it’s only a matter of time before that happens.
Lamont Peterson vs. David Avanesyan
Former IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson has a great chance of winning a world title tonight in his fight against WBA World welterweight champion David Avanesyan (22-1-1, 11 KOs) in the co-feature bout on the Broner vs. Granados card. Peterson is a -335 favorite to beat Avanesyan, according to Fight News. Avanesyan, 28, is not a big puncher, and he had tons of problems in beating 44-year-old Shane Mosley last year. Avanesyan defeated Mosley by a 12 round unanimous decision, but he did not look good in doing so.
The World Boxing Association made it very easy for Avanesyan to win the interim WBA 147lb title by him fighting Charlie Navarro for the belt in 2015. Out of all the fighters in the division for Avaneyan to fight, he was allowed to fight a very average fighter in Navarro to win the interim WBA title.
Peterson should win tonight, but he’s not going to be much of a threat to WBA Super World welterweight champion Keith Thurman. I think Peterson will lose to Thurman badly. Peterson already lost to Danny Garcia in 2015 in getting beaten by a 12 round majority decision. Peterson could have won that fight if he’d started pressuring Garcia early instead of waiting until the second half of the fight to apply pressure on him.