By Jeff Aranow: Mike Stafford, the trainer for former four division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner, says his fighter is going to do a job on undefeated Mikey Garcia on July 29. Stafford says Broner has never lost to a Mexican fighter during his career.
Stafford doesn’t expect the 27-year-old Broner to lose to Mexican American fighter Garcia when the two of them meet up at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Broner isn’t going into the fight in a strong position. He had problems beating his last opponent Adrian Granados last February. Broner lost to Shawn Porter in 2015. It’s hard to believe that was 2 years ago. The reason why it seemed like such a short period of time ago is because Broner has done nothing since that loss. He’s fought 3 times in beating Ashley Theophane, Granados and Khabib Allakhverdiev.
“At 140, we never lost. We never lost to a Mexican,” said Stafford to RingTV.com. ”Why they think a Mexican going to KO Adrien? We’re winning…We’ve been winning. All the hard work he’s been doing will be proven.”
When Broner was at his best, he’d have been a real risky fight for someone like Mikey Garcia, who throws mostly one punch at a time. Mikey Garcia is in the same mold as previous guys that Broner has beaten like Antonio DeMarco. Broner is able to talk down guys that load up on single shots and overwhelm them with hard combinations.
I don’t think Broner has the kind of power and speed that Mikey Garcia possesses, but his power is hard enough with every single to get him out of there. Broner’s left hook could knock Mikey out if he catches him with it. Broner knocked Shawn Porter down with a left hook in the 12th round of their fight in 2015. That was a fight in which Broner didn’t seem to start fighting until the 12th round. He didn’t look or fight with the kind of confidence that we’d seem from him in the past. In the 12th, Broner showed how good he can be when he believes in himself and is fighting with a sense of urgency. It’s unfortunate that Broner didn’t fight that way the entire fight.
Stafford seems to be in denial about Broner status going into this fight. It doesn’t matter that Broner has never lost to a Mexican fighter or that he’s unbeaten at 140. He’s biting off more than he can chew in this fight. Mikey is the favorite because he’s been looking a lot better during his career than Broner. Mikey has been looking exceptionally good in the last 2 fights in beating Dejan Zlaticanin and Elio Rojas. Those guys are probably not in Broner’s league, but it was still impressive to see how easily Mikey dealt with both of those tough fighters. He beat them in a way that made them look like inferior fighters.
Broner looks to be on the decline since his loss to Marcos Maidana in 2013. It’s unclear whether the loss effected Broner or if the money and past success has hurt his career. Either way, Broner hasn’t looked like the same fighter he once was since his defeat to Maidana 4 years ago. Broner’s career was on fire up until his fight with Maidana. In hindsight, it was probably not the wisest thing for Broner to move up in weight to face a guy with the power, size and experience of Maidana that quickly.
Broner should have moved slowly up to welterweight and tested himself against some other fighters in the division before taking that fight. Previously Broner had moved up to welterweight and narrowly beaten WBA World 147lb champion Paulie Malignaggi in June 2013. A lot of boxing fans thought Broner should have lost that fight.
It was close. Broner could have taken a hint from the fight that he didn’t have the size or the talent needed to compete at the top rungs of the 147 lb. division. He didn’t take that hint, and let to him getting beaten by Maidana in his next fight. Broner’s career has not gone well since his loss to Maidana despite his management putting him in with 6 beatable guys that were more or less tune-up level fighters.
“He has so many weapons. Anything coming at us, we can handle,” said Stafford about Mikey Garcia. “No, I don’t train him like Floyd Mayweather, don’t train like Senior or Roger. When Mikey has someone slipping, rolling with shots, countering, throwing stiff jabs, Adrien got all that. He makes adjustments and go for the kill.”
Mikey does well against guys that come straight at him and that are loading up with their power shots. Broner is a lot different than anyone that Mikey has faced before during his career. Broner throws straight shots without putting his entire body into his punches. Broner doesn’t extend his body when throwing shots. He’s usually standing straight up after throwing his arm punches. That’s good and bad.
It’s bad because Broner doesn’t get as much power on his shots as he would if he put his whole body behind them. It’s good though because Broner isn’t off balance and vulnerable to getting hit by Mikey’s counter shots the way that normal fighters are. If Mikey is going to nail Broner with something, he’s going to have to take chances by going after him, because he’s not going to be able to land his counter shots like he did against his last two opponents Elio Rojas and Dejan Zlaticanin. This could be a very hard fight for Mikey Garcia to try and win due to Broner’s different style of fighting. It’s a whole new kettle of fish that Mikey will need to be dealing with on July 29.
Broner vs. Mikey will be televised on Showtime Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It’s a good fight. If the two of them had a little more popularity, it would be a PPV worthy fight. Broner’s career hasn’t taken off the way that some in the boxing world believed that it would since his defeat to Maidana. By this point, Broner should have made the leap to PPV. Unfortunately, Broner’s losses to Maidana and Shawn Porter have hurt his popularity.
Broner hasn’t beaten the big names at 140 and 147 in the last 4 years for him to become a PPV fighter. He needed to defeat the likes of Porter, Maidana, Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson, Errol Spence Jr., Terence Crawford and Keith Thurman. On the positive side, Broner is still young enough at 27 to turn his career around with a big victory over Mikey Garcia on July 29. If Broner can win this fight in style and start beating the top rung fighters at 140 and 147, he could become the PPV star that many thought he would. I don’t know if it’s possible without Broner taking control of his life outside of the ring and staying in shape year round. A win over Mikey would be a big move towards turning Broner into that star that the boxing fans had thought he would be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPbnLFjMTl4