By Dan Ambrose: It’s not surprising to learn that Adrien “The Problem” Broner (30-2, 22 KOs) will be the highest paid fighter in tonight’s Showtime Championship Boxing card in his fight for the vacant WBA World light welterweight title against former WBA 140lb belt holder Khabib Allakhverdiev (19-1, 9 KOs) at the U.S Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Broner, 26, will be getting $1 million compared to just $50,000 for his Russian opponent Khabib Allakhverdiev (19-1, 9 KOs). Broner has a big advantage over the 32-year-old Khabib Allakhverdiev (19-1, 9 KOs) in that he’s with the high powered adviser Al Haymon, who pays his fighters really good money.
Of course, Broner also has the credentials going for him with his three previous world titles in three different divisions. It’s not as if Broner hasn’t done anything with his career.
“Per Ohio comm, purses for tonight’s @SHO Sports card: Broner $1M, Allakhverdiev $50k (likely more in overseas $), Pedraza $185k, Cherry $75k,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter.
Allakhverdiev doesn’t have the fire power or the hand speed to defeat a fighter like Broner. About the best thing that the southpaw Allakhverdiev can do tonight to try and win is for him to be as busy as possible with his punch output, and maybe he can outwork Broner if he can throw 100 punches per round.
Broner shuts down when his opponents throw a ton of punches. We saw how Marcos Maidana and Emmanuel Taylor were able to dominate stretches of their fights with Broner simply by being busier than him.
Broner, 26, should be making the really big bucks by now if not for his losses to Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter. Those defeats were a huge setback to Broner’s career because he could be 32-0 right now if he’d them both. They were both winnable fights for Broner if he’d fought with the right strategy.
Broner needed to move and box Maidana instead of standing in front of him throwing pot shots. Broner’s trainer Mike Stafford should have known that a pot shot counter puncher like Broner would never beat a fighter with the kind of punch volume and power that Maidana possesses.
Broner’s game plan for the Porter fight, moving and clinching, was also a really poor one. Broner ended up not throwing enough punches to win, and he wasn’t quick enough on his feet to escape the pressure that Porter put on him. If Broner had thrown 80 to 100 punches per round, then he would have beaten Porter.
Undefeated IBF World super featherweight champion Jose Pedraza (20-0, 12 KOs) from Puerto Rico will be getting $185,000 for his title defense against #14 IBF Edner Cherry (34-6-2, 19 KOs) in their co-feature bout. Cherry, 33, will be getting $75,000, which is sadly more than the $50,000 that Allakhverdiev will be making in the headliner bout against Broner. That just seems wrong when you see the B-side fighter in the co-feature making more money than the B-side fighter in the main event.
I think Allakhverdiev deserves at least $100,000 for his fight against Matthysse rather than the $50K he’s getting for such a dangerous fight.
The Winner of the Pedraza vs. Cherry fight will be facing #1 IBF mandatory challenger Stephen Smith next. That should be a tough fight for either of them.
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