By Gareth Rees: Adrian Broner (24-0 20 KOs) proved he was a league above the respected Vincente Escobedo (26-4 15 KOs) but has lost a large portion of the boxing worlds respect, whilst Escobedo has gained a massive increase in fans. Broner may have won the fight in 5 rounds, as Escobedo’s trainer Joel Julio threw in the towel so his fighter didn’t take anymore needless punishment, but what everyone will remember is Broner’s disgusting attitude as he failed to make weight massively on two occasions.
During the weigh-ins on Friday, Broner was 3.5 pounds over the 130lb limit and didn’t look drained at all, so it seems the effort in losing weight wasn’t there during training camp and he didn’t even try to sweat of the remaining pounds. Escobedo was unsurprisingly upset but agreed to go on and have his biggest fight to date, as long as Broner didn’t weigh over 140 pounds on the morning of the fight, so Broner had a chance to redeem himself but came in at 143 pounds. This caused much speculation on whether the fight would go ahead with Escobedo’s manager saying his fighter wouldn’t fight. Lucky for Broner he has possibly the most powerful manager in boxing with Al Haymon, who offered Escobedo a significant financial incentive to go on with the fight.
Escobedo has apparently received $30,000 of the $60,000 Broner was rightly fined, and even if Escobedo lost he would get an immediate shot at the WBO title of which Broner was stripped off. Broner has a lot to thank Escobedo for, if Escobedo had decided to not go on with the fight because of Broner’s weight, Broner would have lost much more than respect, as he would have been well and truly in the dog house with Golden Boy, HBO and all of his home fans who came to see him.
If missing twice wasn’t bad enough Broner’s attitude rubbed salt into the wounds of all the paying fans, as he posted pictures on Twitter of Twinkies and Twix ice creams after the weigh-ins on Friday and Saturday. Then instead of apologizing to everybody in the post-fight interview or even on Twitter, he didn’t show nearly enough respect to Escobedo who has just kept his career rolling, and then just shrugged off the problems saying “I just grew out of the weight class, no I’m going up in weight and that’s that.” I think Broner should try to act less like Floyd Mayweather and focus more on making weight and winning as much titles as Mayweather if he is not to fall flat on his face.
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