(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Raj Parmar: In the weeks and months leading up to his December 2013 clash with Marcos Maidana, Adrien Broner was having the time of his life. He had just become a three division champion at 23 years old after beating Pauli Malignaggi in his welterweight debut and was living his dreams. He dabbled into rapping as he went on a city to city tour reciting his lyrics to hip hop fans and was regularly seen partying with various sorts of women. He even released a short tape of himself with two women engaging in a threesome.
His reckless behavior away from the ring brought him lots of attention and he seemingly enjoyed every bit of it. He headed into the Maidana fight full of confidence and cockiness, both of which were literally knocked out of him in the second round of the fight when Maidana dropped him to the canvas for the first time in his career. Marcos would go on to viciously beat up Broner and put a halt to the suggestions that Broner would be the next big superstar of boxing.
Due to his flashy persona, many fans took no time in mocking Broner all over social media networks about the embarrassing loss. Despite being the butt of countless jokes, Adrien claimed immediately after the fight that he was the same cocky guy, was not humbled by the loss and was actually going to celebrate like he won the fight.
Broner reappeared last weekend behind the scenes at the Bernard Hopkins-Beibut Shumenov event and spoke again with the media regarding the Maidana loss. It now seems like the effect of the loss has hit him harder than what he first felt after the fight. Sporting a new thick beard and talking with a little bit more calmness and less bravado than in the past, Broner finally acknowledged that the loss actually has humbled him a bit and he has made some changes to his lifestyle.
The most critical change he said he made is changing the personnel he associates himself with outside the ring. He was shocked when after the loss some people that had been very close with all of a sudden stopped calling him, and has now limited his entourage to just a few people who he totally trusts and can depend on. In addition to this, Broner has cut down his presence on social media, is staying away from being a rapper and is zoning in on being only a full time boxer again.
On the first All Access Episode to promote the May 3 Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana clash, Broner’s mentor Floyd Mayweather said that he himself gives the appearance of being a party animal to the public but in reality stays in the gym training intensely. Broner was actually living the life of a party animal and against Maidana it appeared to have caught up with him. Although Broner insists he will stay flamboyant and outspoken, here’s hoping the tweaks he has made in his personal life leads to a better and more focused Broner both inside and outside the ring.
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