(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/Mayweather Promotions) By Allan Fox: WBA light welterweight champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (31-2, 23 KOs) met with challenger Ashley Theophane (39-6-1, 11 KOs) on Monday in their kickoff press conference at the W Hotel Washington, D.C. Broner and Theophane met with the media to talk about their fight on April 1 on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV from the DC Armory, in Washington, District of Columbia.
Broner, 26, says he plans on making a statement on April 1 by knocking out the 35-year-old Theophane within four rounds or less. Broner says it’s going to be quick, and he doesn’t see any way that it could go beyond the fourth round. Broner wants to show the boxing world that he’s the replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr. now that he’s retired from the sport.
Mayweather just happens to be Theophane’s promoter, and he’s largely the reason that Broner chose to fight the British fighter. Theophane isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies, and it appears the only reason why Broner chose to fight him is he’s signed with Mayweather Promotions.
If Broner is going to be the replacement for Mayweathger, then he’s going to need to start facing better opposition than Theophane. That’s not a big enough name to take Broner to the level of Mayweather. You can argue that Broner is ruining his own career by fighting guys like Theophane, Carlos Molina, Emmanuel Taylor, John Molina and Khabib Allakhverdiev. Broner needs to be fighting better fighters than this if he wants to increase his popularity, and he’s not doing that.
“I’m going to beat Ashley down,” Broner said. “This fight isn’t going four rounds. That’s too many. This is going to be quick. I’m not playing. There’s nothing Floyd can teach [Theophane]. At the end of the day, it all goes out the window. The trainers and entourage can’t help. They can’t help Ashley Theophane.”
This is a mismatch, and of course Broner is going to be able to win the fight in style. He can’t help but to have an easy time because he’s facing a non-contender. The World Boxing Association blessed this fight for some reason by sanctioning it instead of turning it down flat and telling Broner to go back to the drawing board. The fight is being televised by Premier Boxing Champions on Spike. Unless Broner drags this fight out by carrying the over-matched Theophane for eight or nine rounds, this fight is going to end very quickly. Hopefully for the sake of the boxing fans, it’s competitive while it lasts, because it would be bad if it’s a one-sided affair from start to finish.
“This is going to be the best performance of my career. It’s going to be a highlight reel performance. I’m not coming to just get a win,” Broner said. “I want everyone to come out. Big brother Floyd Mayweather is gone, everyone else is too boring, so I’m taking over the sport.”
You have to wonder whether this is only the beginning for Broner facing Mayweather’s fighters in his Mayweather Promotions stable. If there’s going to be more fights between Broner and Mayweather’s stable, then you can expect to see Broner facing the following light welterweights in the future: Maurice “Ambitious” Lee, Juan Heraldez, Sanjarbek Rakhmanov and Charvis Holifield.
I don’t think Broner is going to be the replacement for Mayweather. Whoever the replacement is, he’s going to need to be willing to fight the best opposition rather than milking his title against weak opposition like we’re seeing from Broner. His matchmaking suggests that he’s satisfied with getting paydays against 2nd tier fighters rather than facing dangerous guys that could potentially beat him.
It would be interesting to see Broner step it up against a good prospect like Errol Spence Jr. Mayweather is really high on Spence and sees him as the future of the 147lb division. Broner should try and show that he’s the guy that Mayweather should be building up rather than Spence. Of course, there has been rumors in the past that Spence beat Broner up during a sparring session and had him badly hurt to the point where the session had to be halted. It would be good to see if Broner would be willing to show Mayweather that he’s better than Spence.
Comments are closed.