By Robbie Bannatyne: The litany of articles that have surfaced since Adrien Broner’s humbling at the heavy hands of Marcos Maidana seem to invariably label the Argentine’s victory as a ‘major shock’ or ‘stunning upset’. I never subscribed to this school of thought. The only real surprise to me was that Broner was not badly knocked out.
He deserves great credit for having the bravery to still be standing on his own two feet until the final bell. Sadly for him, his impressive punch resistance and reasonable powers of recovery are the only positives he can take from his first ever defeat as a professional.
From the point of seeing the pictures of a very bloated Adrien Broner standing next to the chiseled and mean looking Maidana I thought ‘Chino’ would beat Broner in a big way. It was clear that the challenger meant business and was ready to fight anytime. The champion Broner, meanwhile, looked ready to burst. He was badly out of shape only six weeks before the biggest fight of his life. The stark image conveyed in perfect clarity the contrast in both men’s approach to this contest.
To quote my own article, written in the build up to the fight, I stated, “One can deduce from his (Broner’s) blasé attitude towards getting in physical condition that he is either just far too confident in his own ability or he has complete contempt for Maidana’s”
“I for one, think there is definitely credence in the conviction that Maidana could make Broner taste his first bitter pill of defeat, and tear his WBA welterweight title from his ever expanding waistline, especially after witnessing his transformation from crude brawler to a more polished boxer-puncher under the tutelage of 2012 ‘Trainer of the Year’ Robert Garcia.”
Like many so called ‘experts’, Adrien Broner also made the fatal mistake of casting doubt on the credibility of Maidana’s challenge. They based their judgments on the pretence that he was a one dimensional slugger who would ultimately be undone by the class and sophistication of Broner’s boxing ability. Those writers, who like Broner himself, placed their faith in the popular miss pre conception that Maidana is still ‘one dimensional’ (he was before) have obviously paid even less attention to Maidana’s drastic change in style, as they did to Broner’s previous insipid performance against Paulie Malignaggi.
Similarly, many people who predicted Maidana’s demise have all grossly overestimated the talent of Adrien Broner. But like Oasis’ Noel Gallagher famously said, “If you keep telling everyone you’re the best, people will start to believe it.”
Adrien Broner constantly proclaiming to be the future face of Boxing upon the retirement of his ‘big brother’ Floyd Mayweather seemed to convince many people that his words were gospel.
By some, Broner was somehow seen as the second coming of Floyd Mayweather simply because he copied his conservative punch output, shoulder roll technique and had a similar ability to make crass comments. But in being duped into believing that Broner was some sort of deity due to the constant comparisons made between him and his idol Floyd Mayweather, they all failed to spot one distinct difference about the two men: whilst he can always talk the talk like Mayweather, he cannot walk the walk in same way. Certainly not in the welterweight divisions anyway.
This became abundantly clear after his unconvincing foray into the welterweight division, where he controversially won Paulie Malignaggi’s WBA title despite producing a desperately poor performance. Luckily for him, Malignaggi is easily the lightest puncher among the genuinely world class welterweights and didn’t have the power to properly expose Adrien Broner deficiencies on the night.
Immediately after the Malignaggi bout, Broner’s hero, Mayweather Jnr could not hide his disappointment with his ‘Lil Brothers’ performance. He stated, to esnewsporting “There’s a lot of things he [Broner] still needs to learn. I thought he should have got the knockout. He was flat-footed.
He doesn’t seem to have learned anything from the Malignaggi fight. Except, that in boxing the big name fighter, who is being groomed for stardom by the television networks and the heavyweight promoters, normally get the benefit of whatever doubt there is in ‘close’ fights that go the distance.
His sense of entitlement permits him to think he can simply turn up and expect to win because he is on a different on a ‘level’ than his opponent.
However, in the 1st defence of his title, his conservative punch output- a hallmark of his game from the outset of his career-was compounded by the fact that he was too scared to regularly initiate fire because he was too weary of what was being returned by Maidana, a murderous puncher- with both hands.
For this was the 1st time that Broner, who was so accustomed to bullying his opponents when he campaigned in the 130-135 divisions, had faced a fighter who not only had a far superior work rate, but also possessed far greater punching power. In the middle rounds, most of his opponents in the lighter weight classes would have been discouraged and forced into survival mode when he found his rhythm. But Maidana was never going to be deterred. When it became clear that, even in period of relative success, he was still unable to stem the flow and repel the attacks of his relentless opponent, it was equally as evident that he would be dominated and defeated.
Even a human being like Broner, with such a reprehensible level of arrogance, surely must have acknowledged that he was in serious danger of losing his title. But still, his lack of urgency was unbelievable.
Psychologically, he threw the towel long before the final bell and admitted defeat all too easily, especially considering Broner was an unbeaten, multi division world champion.
Now his undefeated record is gone and will never return, maybe Adrien Broner will abandon his nauseating obnoxiousness and arrogance. And instead, he may focus on improving as a fighter as opposed to making porn films and insulting all of his opponents.
Now the myth of his invincibility has been shattered, in a similar fashion to the way his jaw was by Maidana, he will awaken to the sobering reality that no-one in the welterweight divisions is scared of Adrien Broner. Nobody is willing to buy what he is selling anymore. Now he can no longer trade on his undefeated record he must go back to the drawing board.
He must first abandon his obsessive mimicry of Floyd Mayweather and instead focus on refining his own fighting style. He must actually throw enough punches to win fights or he will again find himself in a world of pain the next time he faces any elite fighter in the welterweight divisions.
The ‘Problem’ has finally exposed as being a False Prophet and he is up to his eyes in problems of his own. Does he have the solutions to solve these problems?
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