By Chris Williams: WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) will be back in the ring in the summer defending his title against an opponent still to be determined on HBO on June 15th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Broner, 23, was previously mentioned as a possibility to fight on the May 4th undercard headlined by Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Robert Guerrero on Showtime/CBS. However, Broner fights for HBO, and that likely was the major obstacle that got in the way of him fighting on the Mayweather-Guerrero fight card because it would have been a no-brainer to put him on the card.
Golden Boy Promotions also likely wanted a Mexican fighter to be fighting in the co-main event, which is why they moved the Abner Mares vs. Daniel Ponce De Leon from April 20th to the co-main event on the Mayweather-Guerrero card on May 4th to replace Saul “Canelo” Alvarez after he pulled out of the co-main event on that card.
Broner defeated Gavin Rees by a 5th round knockout last month in another easy fight for Broner. Golden Boy needs to put in a strong effort to start finding Broner some quality opponents to fight because Rees was an embarrassment. They want to turn Broner into a pay-per-view star in the same mold as Mayweather, but they’re matching him so poorly that it’s really hard for him to create any real excitement except with his talking because his opponents don’t have much talent.
Broner will likely be facing another weak opponent for June 15th date because this will be a likely tune-up bout to get Broner ready for a unification bout against WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns later on in the year if the fight can be negotiated. It would be nice to see Broner face someone like Raymundo Beltran on June 15th or maybe Kevin Mitchell if the idea is to get the British boxing fans motivated to see him fight Burns.
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