(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner (27-0, 22 KO’s) weighed in successfully at today’s weigh-in for what could be the toughest fight of his life on Saturday night against Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 KO’s) at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Broner weighed in at 144.4 lbs. and looked to be in as good a shape as he was in his last fight against Paulie Malignaggi last June.
With Broner, you really can’t tell whether him being in shape will help him for this particular fight because it’s going to come down to whether he can keep the harder punching Maidana off of him for 12 rounds. If Broner can’t do that, then he loses by knockout or decision.
Maidana weighed in a little heavier at 146.2 lbs. He looked a little thin in the face and upper body, but that’s normal for him.
Broner shouted “He’s dehydrated,” in attempt to get under Maidana’s skin. It didn’t work, because I don’t think Maidana could understand what Broner was saying due to him not being fully fluent in English.
#BronerMaidana @AdrienBroner @ChinoMaidana @GoldenBoyBoxing @LeijaBattahPR @Alamodome pic.twitter.com/sVgfBPv112
— SHOWTIME SPORTS (@SHOsports) December 13, 2013
No matter how you look at it, Broner is going to have a fight on his hands this Saturday. This isn’t the feather-fisted Paulie Malignaggi that Broner will be in with on Saturday. This isn’t the guys that he captured world titles against in Vincente Martin Rodriguez or Antonio DeMarco. Maidana’s a lot more solid than those guys, and a lot stronger. Let’s face reality here; Golden Boy Promotions has matched Broner up very carefully throughout his career, including putting him in against the weakest welterweight in Malignaggi. Now for the first time Broner has a test on his hands with Maidana, and if he can’t pass that test then Broner needs to go back down to the lightweight division. That’s just the way it is. If Maidana dominates and/or stops Broner, then there’s nowhere else to go for Broner other than straight back down to lightweight, unless he can convince big bro Floyd Mayweather Jr. into giving him a fight before he leaves the 147 lb. division.
Other weights on the card:
Keith Thurman 145.8 vs. Jesus Soto Karass 146.2
Beibut Shumenov Shumenov 175 vs. Tamas Kovacs 174.4
Leo Santa Cruz 121.4 vs. Cesar Seda 121.6
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