Theophane: Broner doesn’t have the attributes to beat me

By Boxing News - 03/30/2016 - Comments

broner1111(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/Mayweather Promotions & Nabeel Ahmad/Premier Boxing Champions) By Dan Ambrose: Ashley “Treasure” Theophane (39-6-1, 11 KOs) is hoping WBA Super light welterweight champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (31-2, 23 KOs) comes out looking for a quick knockout this Friday night in their clash on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV from the DC Armory in Washington, DC.

The Broner-Theophane fight isn’t expected to have any problems as far as Broner being at risk of being arrested due to his recent legal problems in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. There’s reportedly little chance that the police will step in to arrest Broner before he steps into the ring.

Theophane believes he can stop Broner or at the very least outwork him if he comes out fast looking to get a stoppage. Broner, 26, has been talking about knocking Theophane out by the 4th round. Theophane doesn’t think Broner has the talent to accomplish that based on the fights he’s seen from him. Theophane notes that Broner is a fighter with flaws in his game that he can exploit on Friday night.

Theophane saw how Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter were able to take advantage of Broner’s vulnerabilities in their fights against him, and he sees himself as being able to do the same thing that they did. There is a slight difference between Theophane and Maidana and Porter.

Those fighters are stockier with more punching power. Theophane has a slender built, and his knockout percentage is 24%. That’s not the type of percentage that would indicate that Theophane will be knocking Broner out on Saturday night in this contest no matter how hard he tries.

“Adrien says he’s going to stop me. I don’t think he has the attributes to do that. But it does mean it’s going to be a great fight. I’m looking forward to it,” said Theophane at their final press conference. “I want this man to live up to his words that he’s going to stop me before round four. Because that means he will be standing and fighting instead of running around the ring.”

Broner did use a great deal of movement in his fight against Shawn Porter last year in June. However, that was the first fight that Broner had ever fought in which he used movement. In his previous fights, he’d always been known as a fighter that stands in the pocket and slugs with his opponents no matter who they are. That tactic worked against Broner in his fight against Maidana in 2013, because he didn’t have the punching power, size or the work rate to fight the hard hitting Argentinian using that style of fighting.

Broner ended up getting knocked down twice by Maidana and beaten by a 12 round decision in a competitive fight. It wasn’t a one-sided affair. Maidana had to really tough it out despite having a great deal of success in the first eight rounds.

This is going to be a step up fight for Theophane because he’s not been fighting guys at the same level as Broner for quite some time. Theophane fought Danny Garcia in 2010 and lost the fight by a 10 round split decision in a close fight. Theophane’s other losses came against Darren Hamilton, Pablo Cesar Cano, Ali Oubaali, Oscar Milkitas, and Judex Meemea. Those last three guys no longer fight any longer after their careers took a turn for the worse shortly after they beat Theophane.

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“A win means everything to me. It changes my life. This is my boyhood dream. This could lead me to all the other big names,” said #9 WBA Theophane.

It’s true that a victory for Theophane would be a tremendous boost to his career. It would almost certainly mean that he would be getting a rematch against Broner in 2016, because there’s little chance that Broner would move on from a defeat without trying to avenge the loss. Broner would almost have to get back in the ring with Theophane to try and avenge the defeat, because the loss would be so unexpected.

Broner is the clear favorite in their fight on Friday night, as he’s the bigger, faster, stronger, younger and more athletic of the two fighters. Having all those advantages going for him normally would mean that the victory is in the bag, but you can’t assume anything with Broner because he’s so undisciplined in the ring and he doesn’t seem capable of throwing a lot of punches. He can be outworked by his opponents, and he lacks the ability to move around the ring to avoid shots the way other fighters can do with punch output problems like he has.

At this point, Broner is seen as a paper champion at 140 due to the circumstances behind him winning the vacant WBA 140lb title. Broner had lost his previous fight to Shawn Porter last June before taking on Khabib Allakhverdiev for the vacant WBA 140lb title last October.

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Before his fight against Broner, Allakhverdiev hadn’t fought for an entire year and he’d lost his last fight. In other words, Allakhverdiev was just as undeserving to be fighting for a world title as Broner had. Somehow the World Boxing Association sanctioned the Broner-Allakhverdiev fight for their vacant WBA title rather than selecting fighters whose career was moving in a better direction than either of those two to fight for their WBA title.

“I will be putting on a show on Friday night. And I’ll go again on Saturday night if you want to get up and do it again,” said Broner. “I am going to exploit and showcase all of my talent.”

You have to expect Broner will come out on top in this fight. He’s all the advantages in this fight that you could think of. Theophane is little more than a fringe contender who is trying to pull off a huge upset. Theophane is backed by promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr., which is clearly the reason why he got the fight with Broner. If Theophane does get the victory, it’ll be due to a great game plan by Mayweather, and a lot of heart by Theophane. It’ll take a great performance by Theophane for him to overcome Broner’s size and talent advantage in this fight.



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