By Sean Jones: Amir Khan has taken to social media to try and encourage Adrien Broner to face him this year. Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) wants to fight Broner, and he seems to be interested in making that next. However, Broner is sounding he like he wants to be extra careful in his next fight.
Broner lost to Mikey Garcia badly last July on Showtime, and he doesn’t want to rush into another fight without being fully prepared. Broner appears to realize that he could flush his career down the drain if he loses too many more fights.
”Adrien Broner, let’s go champ 😂” said Khan.
If Khan is going to get a fight against former 4-time world champion Broner (33-3, 24 KOs), he’s going to need to have Al Haymon talk him into it. Broner doesn’t sound he wants any part of a risky fight against Khan or someone Omar Figueroa Jr. You can’t blame Broner for not wanting to jump into another difficult fight after the way he was easily beaten by Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) in a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss on July 29 on Showtime Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Broner was totally outclassed by Mikey. It wasn’t even a fight. It was a pure schooling by Mikey, who beat Broner by the scores 116-112, 117-111 and 116-112.
Here’s what Broner had to say today:
”I ain’t got a date yet but I ain’t bout to rush into no more fights I prepared [expletive] just don’t… just don’t work that way that’s how I lost in the [Shawn] Porter fight and the Mikey [Garcia] fight. I rushed my camps and my man enough to own up to my [expletive] ups but I ain’t taking [expletive] for granted no more. I will be at 100% for this next fight no matter if it’s against Omar Figueroa Jr. or Amir Khan or anybody else who wanna fight me,” said Broner.
Does that sound like a fighter that wants to face Khan? Broner comes across like someone that had bad experience and now he doesn’t want to go near the thing that messed him up. Broner is finding out the hard way that he doesn’t possess the speed, talent or the power to be a major factor at welterweight. Simply put, Broner doesn’t belong in the welterweight division. Broner fights in a lazy manner. If he was more ambitious inside the ring, he could make up for his lack of power and hand speed in the 140 and 147 pound weight classes, but he plays it safe and fights like he’s half asleep. That kind of fighting style worked for Broner when he was competing in the super featherweight and lightweight divisions, but it doesn’t work for him now that he’s in the welterweight division.
”Showtime Boxing I’m sorry [Stephen] Espinosa. I know you and AL[Haymon] had real good plans for me, but I promise you them plans are still available and I will show that this next fight so let’s get this money and run the numbers up,” said Broner.
Broner apologizing to Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza. That sounds bad. I think Broner’s loss to Mikey Garcia has affected him more than I originally thought. The defeat for Broner was his third loss in the last 5 years. A lot of boxing fans don’t know this, but at one time, Broner was seen as the next Floyd Mayweather Jr., and the guy that was going to take over for him as the biggest pay-per-view star in boxing. That was before Broner was beaten by Marcos Maidana in 2013, and before he lost to Shawn Porter and Mikey Garcia. With Broner’s latest loss to Mikey, it’s academic that he’s not going to be the next Mayweather.
At this point, Broner appears to be just trying to save his sinking career, which is on the verge of imploding. With another loss, I wouldn’t be surprised if Broner is relegated to undercard fights. How do you put Broner in a main event with his career evaporating? Broner isn’t old. He hasn’t lost his boxing skills due to age. It’s more of a case of Broner getting heavy, having to take off a lot of weight for his fights, and basicall9 him fighting in weight classes that he’s not suited for. Broner should still be at super featherweight or lightweight. Broner doesn’t need hand speed to fight at a high level in those weight classes.
Here’s Broner dreaming out load on Instagram:
”Line them up and I’m going to knock them down and I will avenge my losses to Mike Garcia and Showtime Shawn Porter. They was the better man the night we fought. No excuses. I don’t know who I’m fighting next, but I don’t give a [expletive]. I don’t want no bull [expletive] fights. I want to fight someone tough, so I can show y’all, when I’m 100 percent, no one can [expletive] with me,” said Broner.
I don’t think it matters how well prepared Broner is for his fights. If he’s matched against someone talented from the 140 or 147 pound divisions, he’s going to lose to them. Broner doesn’t have the necessary physical skills to be a factor in those weight classes when matched against the best. There’s no shame in that. It would be the same thing if you took Keith Thurman and stuck him in the middleweight division with the likes of Gennady Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez. Thurman would have his moments against either of those guys, but ultimately they’d get him and knock him out.
Broner is really just a super featherweight in terms of his power. If he could lose enough weight to get back to 130, he’d be a good fighter in that division. I would say that Broner should go back down to lightweight, but after the way Mikey Garcia handled him last July, I don’t think he’d do well in the 135 lb. division. Mikey would still have Broner’s number even at lightweight. Broner would have to go all the way down to super featherweight, and make sure he stays away from Vasyl Lomachenko. That’d be a bad match-up for Broner.