The problem with Broner

By Timothy Medina - 12/15/2013 - Comments

broner9991By Timothy Medina: Last night in San Antonio, Texas at the Alamodome, a new champion emerged from the welterweight class. Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) triumphed over Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) to be crowned the new WBA Welterweight champion. Maidana is the one who was able to solve “The Problem” and now he reigns supreme in his weight class.

Broner transformed himself into boxing’s biggest villain with all of his trash talking, the mind games he played with past opponents and the cockiness he displays in and out of the ring. These tactics had drawn a lot of attention to him which was very smart of him to do. Yet, it created a lot of hatred towards him as well. Many boxing fans were hoping for a fighter who could finally solve “The Problem”. In the eyes of many including myself, Paulie Malignaggi had solved him though the judges did not see it.

After that fight, it was clear that Broner could be defeated. The question was “Which fighter will defeat him?” When “Broner versus Maidana” was announced for December 14th, everyone knew that Broner would be dealing with a tough customer. If there was no improvement from the fight he had with Malignaggi, there was a slim chance he would be able to outbox the hard hitting Maidana.

The former WBA Welterweight champion seemed very confident that he would defeat Maidana with ease and keep his title at the end of their fight. Broner did not fear Maidana. It is admirable when a fighter has no fear of his opponent. However, a fighter must realize what they are going up against. Maidana is nothing like Daniel Ponce de León, Antonio DeMarco, Gavin Rees or Paulie Malignaggi. Maidana is someone with tremendous punching power and he can hurt any opponent at any moment. He is most dangerous once he’s been hurt because his instinct is to hit you much harder than you hit him. Broner’s overconfidence would be his downfall against Maidana.

I believe Broner did not take this fight as serious as he should have. Last night I did not see any areas where Broner had improved in. From the first round, Maidana went to attack Broner as if he were a shark that smelled blood. Broner decided to be a showman instead of a fighter during the first round by going behind Maidana and humping him which was an attempt to get inside of his head.

That did not bother Maidana or throw him off his game. In fact, that only antagonized Maidana. Early in the second round, Maidana continued his vicious assault and knocked down Broner. Broner was in a bad state during that round and managed to survive. In the third round, Broner started to let his hands go and tried to make it fight but, he could not stop Maidana from coming foward and attacking.

That would be the story for the rest of the fight. During the middle rounds, Broner let his hands go which is what he needed to do, yet, not enough to stop Maidana’s offense and he continued to get tagged with hard leather by the challenger. When the seventh round arrived, Maidana started to show signs of fatigue and even though he was a bit fatigued, he continued to slug it out. In the eighth round, Maidana sent Broner to the canvas for the second time in the fight which would have made it a 10-8 round for Maidana. However, seconds later Broner was holding the arms of Maidana which would result in Broner receiving a headbutt on the chin. For this, Maidana was deducted a point and gave back the point Broner lost for being knocked down.

That did not matter due to Broner’s offense being mute for most of the ninth round and Maidana continuing to put Broner in a world of pain. When round ten arrived, Maidana appeared to be very tired and surprisingly threw double the amount of punches that Broner had thrown. Broner refused to throw punches and it seemed as if he was afraid of exchanging blows with Maidana because of the damage he received in the previous round. In the championship rounds, Broner came forward, threw more punches than the last three rounds and was still ineffective. Maidana experiencing fatigue and against the ropes, did not stop fighting and made Broner’s knees buckle during the last round. Maidana had cemented himself into boxing as one of its few warriors.

Maidana’s desire to go after Broner and hurt him for twelve rounds earned him a unanimous decision victory. The scores for the fight were 115-110, 117-109 and 116-109. Maidana deserved the unanimous decision victory because he never stopped assaulting Broner, he was able to outland Broner in every round and he prevented Broner from attacking during many points of the fight. Maidana is a strong candidate for fighter of the year in my opinion. Not only did he defeat Josésito López earlier in the year, he was able to shoot down one of boxing’s biggest rising stars to become the WBA Welterweight champion. It is unknown who Maidana will fight next year. What is known is that he has set himself up for a big payday in 2014. Hopefully he gets a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. which is what he has his eyes set on.

What is next for Broner? Well he wants a rematch with the man who just took his title and I do not blame him. If Maidana is willing to to give him a rematch, then it may happen. I do not see a different outcome though. I believe Broner should go back down in weight because the welterweight class is filled with elite competition, and Broner is not an elite fighter. Maybe some day he will be elite. As for now, the lightweight class is most suitable for him. Even in the junior welterweight class I can see him struggling with fighters like Amir Khan, Ruslan Provodnikov, Lucas Matthysse and Danny Garcia. A few more fights as a lightweight will do Broner some good and prepare him for tough competition in the future. For now though, “The Problem” himself has been solved and the problem with Broner has not.



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