Adrien Broner loses WBA title, fails to make weight

By Boxing News - 03/31/2016 - Comments

1-Broner7_Photo © Paul Paparazzi Jones_2016

By Jim Dower: Adrien Broner (31-2, 23 KOs) failed to make weight earlier today at his weigh-in for his fight against Ashley Theophane (39-6-1, 11 KOs) for their fight on Friday night on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV at the DC Armory in Washington, DC.

Broner weighed in only a half-pound over the light welterweight limit at 140.4., but he chose not to go back and take the weight off. His WBA title has now been stripped from him. Theophane will have the chance to win the belt. Broner will be paying Theophane an extra $50,000 for being 0.4 pounds over the 140lb weight limit. That’s good money for Theophane, who hasn’t made the huge money during his career.

Theophane sounded gleeful about Broner failing to make weight, as he believes it’s going to give him a better chance of winning the fight on Friday night.

“We’re going to get that win,” said Theophane to Fighthype.com. “He looked stressed out up there. He looked stressed out throughout. I’m ready. Now it’s time to but the work in and make it happen. Now it’s time for me to go in there and get that win. I came for a war. I’m ready for him. I’m ready for anything he brings. He was in the back trying to lose that weight.”

The fact that Broner didn’t even try to take off the half pound in the two hours given to him to lose it suggests that he’s a little worried about being weakened.

Most fighters would have put in the effort to lose the weight so that they could hold onto their titles, especially if they were fighting a fringe contender like Theophane. It’s not as if Broner has to worry a whole lot about being weakened and blasted out by the light hitting Theophane. He doesn’t have the punching power to stop Broner.

It’s strange that Broner didn’t have the confidence in himself to go back and lose the weight and then keep his title. Of course, it obviously helps that Broner has Al Haymon as his manager. Haymon will get Broner another world title shot regardless of how many titles he loses. Broner is going to wind up being fine. The only thing he needs to focus on is winning the fight, looking good, and making sure that he doesn’t have any mishaps in the fight.

Broner, 26, might want to consider moving up to 147 to chase the bigger fights. There’s nothing there for Broner if he stays at 140. All the big names have already moved up to 147, and the only guys that remain at 140 are the fighters that don’t have the popularity or talent to move up to welterweight to beat the best. Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol are probably the only guys at 140 besides Broner that would have a chance to win a world title at welterweight if matched against the right opponent. However, those are Top Rank fighters, so it would likely be difficult for them to get fights against the likes of WBC champion Danny Garcia and WBA champion Keith Thurman.

If Haymon can get a fight for Broner against Danny Garcia, it’ll be an interesting match-up for the two of them. It would be a winnable for Broner if he comes in shape and remembers to throw more than 25 punches per round, which is what he averaged in his loss to Shawn Porter last June.

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