By Allan Fox: Bad luck seems to be following Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner and his opponent for his next fight Omar Figueroa Jr. ahead of their scheduled April 21st fight on Showtime Boxing. Broner was charged with a misdemeanor sexual battery charge on Tuesday from an incident that took place the pace the previous day in Atlanta at a shopping mall.
For his part, the 28-year-old Figueroa Jr. is dealing with a DUI charge for an arrest late last month on January 29th in Riverside, California. Figueroa Jr. was arrested at 3:14 a.m. on the 29th of January. According to ESPN, Figueroa Jr. weighed 170 pounds at the time of his arrest, which means he has to shed 30 pounds for him to get down to the 140 lb. weight limit for the fight with Broner on April 21.
Broner weighed 160 lbs. for his arrest last Monday, so he’s got to lose 20 lbs. Figueroa Jr. will likely lose 10 pounds of fat during his training camp, and then dehydrate to lose the other 20 pounds to make weight. Losing 20 lbs. of water weight won’t be a problem for Figueroa Jr.
TMZ Sports had video of Broner’s arrest on Monday for his charge of sexual battery for allegedly groping a woman at a shopping mall. Broner was wondering why TMZ didn’t jump all over Figueroa’s DUI arrest.
Broner said this on his social media site about Figueroa’s DUI arrest from last January:
”So y’all don’t want to put this on @tmz_tv @theshaderoom @balleralert @mymixtapez @worldstar…… this the Mf I’m fighting doe ha ha ha ha ha ha [expletive] it keep turning up @omarfigueroajr I’m bout to beat yo drunk ass den buy you a shot 😂😂😂😂#April21st”
Broner vs. Figueroa Jr. could wind up taking place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on the 21st of April. It’s not the ideal location, as Broner is from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Figueroa if from Texas.
Broner (33-3, 23 KOs) has got his work cut out for him to try and defeat the unbeaten Figueroa Jr. (27-0-1, 19 KOs). Right now, Figueroa Jr. looks like he’s fighting at a better level than Broner by a long shot. Figueroa has better power at 140 than Broner, and he has a higher work rate. If Broner is going to win this fight, then he’s going to need to find some punching power somewhere and start blocking some shots. I don’t think it’s possible for Broner to ever match Figueroa’s punch output. He doesn’t have that kind of game.
Broner vs. Figueroa Jr. will be a WBC 140 lb. title eliminator match. The winner of the fight will be the mandatory to the winner of the Amir Imam vs. Jose Carlos Ramirez fight on March 17th. Figueroa Jr. would have the better style to deal with Ramirez compared to Broner, who doesn’t throw nearly as many punches as he does. The Broner-Figueroa Jr. winner won’t get a title shot right away, as former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Julius Indongo will be battling unbeaten Regis Prograis on March 9th for the for the interim WBC light welterweight title. The winner of the Ramirez-Imam fight will face the winner of the Prograis-Indongo fight. Broner vs. Figueroa will then face the winner of that fight for the WBC light welterweight title.
Figueroa Jr. has rarely fought since 2016 due to injury problems. He didn’t fight at all in 2016. In 2017, Figueroa Jr. fought once in beating Robert ‘The Ghost’ Guerrero in stopping him in the 3rd round ion July 2017. After the fight, Guerrero announced his retirement from boxing. Figueroa Jr. had been out of the ring for 1 ½ years before the Guerrero match. Figueroa Jr. lost his WBC lightweight title due to a hand injury that caused the WBC to change his status to ‘champion in recess.’