By Jeff Aranow: Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner (33-3, 24 KOs) is working hard on trying to improve his low work rate for his April 21 fight against Omar Figueroa Jr. (27-0-1, 19 KOs) at a still to be determined venue. This a fight that Broner cannot afford to lose if he wants to remain one of the top fighters in boxing. It’s already clear that Broner is not going to be the next Floyd Mayweather Jr. as some people had thought he would be years ago. At this point, Broner is little more than a gate keeper.
Broner, 28, lost his last fight badly to Mikey Garcia on July 29 due to him not throwing enough punches, and he almost lost his fight before that against Adrian Granados last year in February. Broner lost that fight in the eyes of many in the boxing world, but the contest took place in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.
In a video on Fighthype, Broner supposedly threw 500 nonstop punches in getting ready for his tough contest against the 28-year-old Figueroa Jr. Broner looks slow and flat-footed in the video, showing the exact same flaws that has caused him to lose to the likes of Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter and Marcos Maidana. Despite Broner’s 3 losses, he remains a popular fighter due to his gift for gab. Nowadays, Broner has fans following him more because of his trash talking than what he’s accomplishing inside the ring. Broner is no longer beating top guys, and he never really did beat good fighters anyway to win his fights.
Broner is going to need to do something to try and increase his punch rate, because Figueroa Jr. is a nonstop volume puncher, who will just on Broner from the start and look to wear him down and send him into retirement like he did in his last fight against Robert Guerrero last July in stopping him in the 3rd round. If Figueroa Jr. is able to outwork Broner like Adrian Granados did last year, he’ll have a good chance of beating him depending on where the fight takes place. If Figueroa Jr. is forced to fight Broner in his hometown of Cincinnati, then he might need a knockout to win. Granados clearly beat Broner, but he ended up losing a controversial split decision.
Broner’s 4 world titles were won against these fighters:
• Vincente Martin Rodriguez (39-5-1, 21 KOs)
• Vincente Escobedo (26-6, 15 KOs)
• Antonio DeMarco (33-6-1, 24 KOs)
• Khabib Allakhverdiev (19-2, 9 KOs)
Those are not good fighters. Broner picked up world titles fighting vulnerable guys with limited talent. That’s the problem. Broner never beat good opposition to earn his name. It was all strategic fights in which Broner was positioned against flawed fighters to win world titles the easy way. Now that Broner is starting to get exposed in defeats against Porter, Maidana and Garcia, boxing fans think he’s lost something from his game. The reality is that Broner never had great talent to begin with. He doesn’t throw a lot of punches, he’s flat-footed, slow and he doesn’t have huge power for the 140 and 147 lb. weight classes.
Broner says he wants to avenge his losses to Shawn Porter and Mikey Garcia, but those defeats appeared more related to his lack of talent than him not training right. It would be a mistake for Broner to try and avenge those losses, because he could lose again and find his sagging boxing career on skid row.
Here’s what Broner said on his social media about his dreams of beating Figueroa, winning a world title and avenging his loses to Mikey Garcia and Shawn Porter:
”This year I will be crowned king again and it starts with Omar Figueroa Jr. April 21st but after that I want to get some get back at Showtime Shawn Porter and Mikey Garcia. These two guys I can admit beat me fair and square no excuses but I know I can defeat both of these guys so good luck to both of these guys and I hope y’all keep building y’all names so when I come kick y’all [expletive] the second time around it will be that much bigger and last but not least Amir King Khan I just want to knock him out cause it don’t take much to do it plus it will sell out over in the UK so if Eddie Hearn want to make the fight let’s [expletive] do it….. NOW I RESPECT ALL THESE GUYS BUT LIKE I SAID 2018 is MY YEAR #OnMyMama🆎🆎🆎🆎🆎🆎🆎
It’s more than likely that Figueroa Jr. will deal Broner another defeat, and put ‘The Problem’ in a tough position where he’ll need to start considering retirement from the sport. It’s one thing for Broner to get beaten by talented fighters like Porter, Marcos Maidana and Mikey Garcia, but it’s another thing for him to lose to a straight up slugger like Figueroa. Broner had an excuse for losing to Maidana and Porter due to those fighters being bigger than him. Figueroa Jr. was a lightweight for many years, and he’s not bigger than Broner. If Figueroa Jr. defeats Broner, it’s because he’s simply a better fighter than him. Broner would have to face the music at that point that he’s not going to be a world chaampion unless he can target a weak paper champion and maybe get lucky.
