By Jeff Aranow: Mikey Garcia has strong suspicions about the ultimate motives of former 4 division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner for his reasoning to be overly friendly with him since they signed for their July 29 fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Broner isn’t usually super friendly with his opponents.
(Photo credit: Scott Hirano/SHOWTIME)
Broner tends to taunt them and trash talk during the press conferences. In the case of Mikey Garcia, Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) has taken a different tact in being very friendly, joking with him, and posing for pictures. Mikey (36-0, 33 KOs) thinks that Broner is being friendly because he believes it will lead to him taking it easy on him and not giving him a bad beating when the two of them face each other on Showtime Boxing on July 29.
It would be a placating/submissive move on Broner’s part for him to be nice to Mikey with hopes of him not blasting him apart on July 29. If Mikey eases up just a little in the fight, it would allow Broner to get out of the fight in one piece potentially. Mikey’s trainer Robert Garcia also thinks Broner is being friendly because of his hope that he won’t want to beat him so bad. Robert makes it clear though that Broner is not his friend. Robert doesn’t plan on being Broner’s friend.
“I believe he’s going to be 100 percent because he knows what’s in front of him,” said Mikey Garcia. “He’s not being disrespectful. He’s showing a little bit more friendliness It’s like he wanted to be friends. I’m a little shocked at that. Maybe he wants to be friends so I don’t bet him up so bad,” said Mikey.
I agree with Mikey about why Broner is being nice to him. I thought the exact same thing when I first saw how Broner was acting with Mikey during their press conferences. I thought it was clearly an example of Broner trying to make Mikey think they were friends so that he wouldn’t try and knock him out badly like he’s been doing with his other opponents. I think some boxers do this with their opponents. It’s usually the B-side fighter that is over-matched badly. They sometimes act very friendly in the press conferences. During the fights, you’ll see the B-side fighter touching gloves at the start or the end of rounds. You’ll also see them touching gloves to apologize for punches they throw low or to the back of the head. I think it works for the B-side fighter to do that. The dominant and more talented fighter often doesn’t pour it on looking to destroy their opponents when they’re acting friendly with placating moves. However, sometimes the A-side fighter will still go ahead and looking to knockout their submissive opponent.
I Broner is trying to make Mikey ease up on him by being super friendly in the buildup to the fight, then that suggests that he not only thinks he’s going to lose the fight, but he also has lost his confidence that he once had when he was capturing world titles in the lower weight classes.
Mikey notes that it works to put pressure on Broner to wear him down. Mikey points out that Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter both beat Broner with pressure in their fights with him in the past. Mikey says he can use pressure to defeat Broner if he has to, but he also possesses other tools that he believes can get the job done against the 27-year-old.
“If I have to put the pressure on Broner, I’m going to do that,” said Mikey. ”That’s something that affects Adrien. Maidana was effect in putting a lot of pressure on Broner. Porter was successful. If I have to do that or if that’s the only way I can win, then I’ll be ready for that, but that’s not something I look for. I have other skills I can take advantage of,” said Mikey.
I don’t think it’s necessary for Mikey to use pressure to beat Broner. That’s not the type of fighter Mikey is. Maidana and Porter both used pressure and high volume attacks to defeat Broner. Those tactics played into the fighting style of those two pressure fighters. Mikey is more of a single shot power puncher, who likes to set traps to destroy his opponents. It would be a huge departure from Mikey’s normal way of fighting for him to suddenly try and pressure Broner and throw a lot of punches. That might play into Broner’s hands if Mikey gets in the pocket and throws a massive amount of shots.
Mikey might get tired if he fights like that, and he also could get clipped by one of Broner’s big shots. Broner has good boxing skills, and excellent power in his left hand. If Mikey throws a lot of shot, he could get hit by one of Broner’s big power shots and knocked out. This is definitely the biggest puncher that Mikey has faced during his boxing career. Mikey has been in the ring with the likes of Juan Manuel Lopez, Orlando Salido and Roman Martinez. Those are all excellent punchers. However, they’re not as big as Broner, and they don’t hit as consistently hard as he does.
Mikey doesn’t think Broner’s shoulder roll defense will help him in this fight. Mikey isn’t worried about him being able to get past Broner’s shoulder roll by using his power shots from his left and right hand.
”I’ve got a good right hand, left hook. I’m going to throw punches in there,” said Mikey. ”He’s not going to win with the shoulder roll. I want to move back down to 135 for a unification,” said Mikey.
Mikey says if Broner can’t make the 140 lb. limit for the fight, then there won’t be a fight taking place between them on July 29. Mikey won’t renegotiate the contract weight for the fight like Broner’s last opponent Adrian Granados did last February. If Broner can’t make weight, then they’ll need to reschedule the fight for a different date, because he won’t be fighting the heavier Broner. That’s bad news for Broner because he hasn’t made the 140 lb. weight limit since 2015. Broner has only been at 140 or less in one out of his last five fights. He’s consistently over 140. If Broner makes weight for the Mikey Garcia fight, it’ll be a surprise because he’s not showing that he can make the weight for this division.
“140 is the max weight,” said Mikey in talking about the weight limit for the Broner fight. “There’s no separate clause saying we can go to 142 or 144. I made it clear that 140 is the max weight. He agreed. If he happens to come in overweight a pound or two or three of four and he wants to renegotiate the weight a week or two before the fight for a higher weight, I don’t believe we’re going to be successful at that. If that should happen, then we’ll have to look at another date or another opponent. I hope not because he agreed on 140. We can always see what’s available. Another opponent can take the fight. Maybe change the date. We’ll just wait and see,” said Mikey Garcia
“This is the biggest fight in Mikey’s career, but just the beginning of many more,” said Mikey’s trainer Robert Garcia to Fighthub. “It takes Mikey to bigger and better fights. I have no doubt that Mikey is going to take this fight and win it and move on to bigger things. Maidana beating Broner was probably the biggest win of my career as a trainer. I’m sure he’s seen Mikey hits harder than Maidana. What’s going to happen when Mikey lands.”
This is going to be a huge win for Mikey if he can knockout Broner. The only way it won’t be a big win is if Broner does what Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. did in his loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez on May 6. Chavez Jr. didn’t even try and fight back. He was just taking punches and fighting passively. After the fight, Chavez Jr. blamed his poor performance on him having to melt down from 215 pounds to get down to the 164.5 pound catch-weight for the fight.
Canelo didn’t get the full credit from the boxing public for beating Chavez Jr. due how poorly Chavez Jr. looked and fought. If Broner does the same thing, he can blame his loss on him being weight drained. Of course, it would still hurt Broner’s career if he just takes punishment and makes excuses afterwards. If Broner says he’s drained at 140, it would leave him in a situation where he would need to fight the rest of his career at 147. I don’t think Broner has the power, speed, size or talent to be a dominant fighter at 147.
“Let’s be real, I’m not his friend. He’s not my friend,” said Robert Garcia about Broner. “He wanted to be friendly. I don’t know. Maybe he wants to be friends with Mikey so that Mikey takes it easy on him. Maybe he’s playing games. He hasn’t been able to win the big fights against Maidana and [Shawn] Porter. He can’t win them. We’re not looking for it, but Mikey has the power to knockout anybody. If Mikey lands the right punch, I think he can knock him out. If Mikey can knock him out, it’s the greatest thing that can happen to him.”
Robert Garcia and Mikey were both quick to analyze Broner and figure out why he’s being overly nice. I think they both have come to the conclusion that Broner is hoping to get them to take it easy on him during the fight. It’s that kind of sad because Broner was a top notch fighter during the early part of his career. I think Broner’s losses to Maidana and Porter has taken a lot out of him as far as his self-confidence goes. If Broner is now to the point in his career where he’s acting submissive with his talented opponents like Mikey Garcia, then that’s a bad sign for the future for him.
Broner might need to think about either retiring soon or moving down in weight to a weight class that he can dominate like he was doing at super featherweight. You can’t even say that Broner should move to lightweight, because Mikey’s down there. Broner would need to go back down to super featherweight for him to have a chance of being the fighter that he once was. I don’t think Broner can make the super featherweight limit of 130 lbs. any longer.
Broner isn’t even making 140. For Broner to lose another 10 pounds on top of that, I think it would be risky. Broner could certainly train all year round and be able to make 130, but I don’t know if he would have the same power that he once had. When you start gaining weight from eating a lot, it’s very tough to get back down to a weight that you previously had before you started to overeat and not exercise.
