Broner favored to beat Allakhverdiev

By Boxing News - 10/03/2015 - Comments

Image: Broner favored to beat Allakhverdiev(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME) By Allan Fox: 26-year-old #2 WBC Adrien Broner (30-2, 22 KOs) is currently the favorite to defeat former WBA 140lb champion Khabib Allakhverdiev (19-1, 9 KOs) to capture the vacant WBA World light welterweight title tonight, according to Fight News.

Broner has almost every imaginable advantage over the 32-year-old Allakhverdiev in their fight on Showtime Championship Boxing from the U.S Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. The fight will be taking place in Broner’s hometown of Cincinnati, and he has the power, hand speed, youth and defensive skills advantage over the Russian Allakhverdiev.

The Broner-Allakhverdiev fight is an example of good match-making by Broner’s adviser Al Haymon, and the World Boxing Association has helped out by sanctioning the fight rather than by rejecting it and insisting that Broner fight the higher ranked #1 WBA Jose Benavidez or #3 WBA Amir Iman.

Allakhverdiev is ranked #4 by the WBA, and he’s coming off of a year and a half layoff from the sport and a loss to Jessie Vargas last year in April.

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Broner hasn’t been speaking to the media for this fight with Allakhverdiev after he got bent out of shape after taking some criticism from the boxing media about him being allowed to fight for the WBA light welterweight title against Allakhverdiev rather than Benavidez.

Broner says he’s going to speak to the media after he defeats Allakhverdiev to capture his 4th division world title in four weight classes. Broner is making a big deal about him being on the verge of winning a fourth division world title. However, a lot of the boxing media see Broner as having accomplished very little in winning his world titles, because he’s not had to do it against the best fighters in those weight classes.

Likewise, if Broner defeats Allakhverdiev tonight to win the vacant WBA light welterweight title, Broner won’t have done it against the best or even close to the best fighter in the 140lb division.

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You can make an argument that the following light welterweights are much better fighters than Allakhverdiev: Lucas Matthysse, Viktor Postol, Amir Iman, Jose Benavidez, Chris Algieri, Terence Crawford, Thomas Dulorme, Ruslan Provodnikov, Humberto Soto, Antonio Orozco, Felix Diaz, Omar Figueroa, Lamont Peterson, Mauricio Herrera, Jack Catterall, Cesar Cuenca, and John Molina. That’s roughly 17 fighters at 140 that you can say that are better fighters than Allakhverdiev. For that reason, you can’t really say that Broner is accomplishing much if he beats Allakhverdiev tonight to win the vacant WBA light welterweight title.

In the co-feature bout, IBF super featherweight champion Jose Pedraza (20-0, 12 KOs) will be defending his title against fringe contender #14 Edner Cherry (34-6-2, 19 KOs). Pedraza, 26, is the favorite to defeat the 33-year-old Cherry. This very well could be a mismatch, as the 14-year veteran Cherry hasn’t faced a tough opponent in seven years since his loss to Timothy Bradley in 2008.

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Cherry has won 10 out of his 11 fights in the last seven years. His only blemish on his resume during that time frame was a 10 round draw against Eric Aiken in 2011. Pedraza has recent wins over Michael Farenas and Andrey Klimov. He looked very good in both of those fights in winning easy victories.



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