(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Allan Fox: WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner might be on borrowed time as the WBA 147 lb. champion because the interim belt holder Keith Thurman (21-0, 19 KO’s) is focused on going after Broner’s title in 2014. As the interim champion, Thurman is poised to fight for Broner’s belt, and it’s going to make it interesting for Broner and for Golden Boy Promotions in 2014 to see what they do to avoid the fight.
Few people think Broner will actually fight Thurman due to his lack of size and power in the 147 lb. weight class, but it’s going to be interesting to see what Broner or Golden Boy comes up with in order to avoid that fight. You can’t make Broner the next Floyd Mayweather Jr. with him getting beaten by Keith Thurman.
Thurman this about wanting Broner: “When Adrien Broner took it [WBA 147 lb. title], then that makes me look forward to stepping into that ring with ‘A.B’ in 2014. A lot of fans want that fight and I want what the fans want.”
Thurman had no luck in getting the previous WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi to fight him. Now it’s Broner’s turn, but his situation is a little different because he’s going to have to fight Thurman sooner or later unless the World Boxing Association is going to let Broner bypass Thurman for 2014 and later. You can never really tell what a sanctioning body is going to do when dealing with a popular fighter. They might let Broner avoid the fight for ages, and that obviously would be good for Broner and for Golden Boy. They want to turn Broner into another PPV star along the lines of Mayweather, but Broner doesn’t have the same kind of dominating talent that Mayweather possesses at this weight. You can’t just match Broner up with anyone and expect him to win.
Broner faces Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 KO’s) this Saturday night in what amounts to be a toss up fight at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. This is going to be a tough fight for the 5’6 1/2″ Broner and he very well could lose the fight. If Broner does win, he needs to look good and win conclusively this time because he can’t keep winning by controversial decisions like he did against Malignaggi last June.
Thurman will be fighting on the undercard of the Broner-Maidana fight in defending his interim WBA welterweight belt against Jesus Soto-Karass (28-8-3, 18 KO’s). This should be a good fight and it’ll give fans a chance to see where Thurman stands talent-wise with the other top welterweights.
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