By Dan Ambrose: Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner denies that he’ll be back inside the ring fighting in January. He says that’s a lie because he still hasn’t gotten the $10 million that he’s asked SHOWTIME to fight again. Broner has been asking for $10 million since last year, and the network hasn’t come forward to offer him the million that he wants to get him off the couch to resume his stalled career.
It ould be that Broner is spoiled from the money that he made in his last fight against Manny Pacquiao in January of 2019. ‘The Problem’ was paid well for the battle against superstar Pacquiao, but he lost to him by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in a dull contest.
Like in many of Broner’s other defeats, he failed to let his hands go and wound up getting outworked by the 40-year-old Filipino star. Broner wasn’t paid $10 million or anything close to that for the match against Manny. As a result, it’s peculiar that he’s asking for that kind of money now.
Does Broner still want to fight?
Perhaps the overriding issue that’s keeping Showtime from meeting the former four-division world champion Broner’s asking price is the fact that he hasn’t won a fight since 2017. The trash-talking Adrien has encountered a severe dry spell in his 12-year professional career to where he can’t even beat fringe level fighters like Jessie Vargas.
Broner (33-4-1, 24 KOs) revealed earlier this week that he’d be fighting journeyman Ivan Redkach in his next fight. Whether Broner has changed his mind about wanting to take the battle with Redkach is unknown. If Adrien is insisting on getting $10 million for the Redkach fight, then someone needs to sit him down and talk some sense to him.
“I hear there are a lot of rumors that I’m coming back and fighting in January,” said Broner on social media.
“That’s a lie because they ain’t talking about my $10 million. Until they start talking about giving me my $10 million, I’m just going to continue dropping off nines, eighteen and thirty sixes. It’s time to drink. That’s right.
“To get me to fight again, I need ten [million]. F*** them. If you want to do a sound with me, $5000. Hit me up. Hit me up. It’ll be done today,’ said Broner.
The underlying message is from Broner, asking for $10 million to resume his career because he doesn’t want to fight anymore. So instead of telling boxing fans that he’s retired from the sport, Broner is pricing himself out.
It’s a way of Broner retiring while looking good and being able to show that he was calling the shots. The request of $10 million sounds so crazy; it seems like Broner is kidding around and isn’t serious.
With that said, the fact that Broner hasn’t kept busy since losing to Pacquiao a year and a half ago indicates that he may indeed want $10 million to continue fighting. The question is, did Broner take such a bad beating in the Pacquiao fight that it changed his way of thinking about wanting to continue to compete in the blood sport of boxing? You can’t rule that out.
Adrien says he’s fighting Redkach next
Maybe one of these days, years from now, Broner might get a crazy offer from someone to bring him out of retirement to fight one of the young lions or a famous retired fighter in need of a name guy to face him.
“I would love to go in there and stop him, it’ll be a good fight,” said Broner to Brian Custer’s Last Stand podcast. “Especially with me coming off of 2 years, I don’t care as long as my money right. We going to have a hell of a fight, but I’m going to f*** him up though, he asking for it, he’s been begging for it.”
At this point in Broner’s career, a fight between him and Redkach would be a 50-50 affair. As bad as Broner has looked in the last three years of his career, a battle between him and Redkach is an even money match-up. The downside of Broner fighting Redkach is that if he gets beaten by him, that’s it.
Broner’s career will be finished for all intents and purposes. Of course, Adrien can certainly trudge on if he likes, but the paydays, such as they are, would likely drop off dramatically for him.
Right now, Broner is still useful as a B-side opponent for the popular contenders at 147 because the casual boxing fans know of him from the many exciting fights he’s been in over the years. Broner is still one of the best in the game regarding his ability to trash talk his opponents and drum up business when he’s motivated.
When properly motivated, Broner is excellent at talking to the press and creating a lot of noise during his news conferences. But the fact remains, Broner hasn’t won a fight since his controversial 10 round split decision victory over Adrian Granados in February 2017, and that was ages ago. You don’t stay as a top-level fighter when you haven’t won a fight in three years like Broner.
Fans want to see Broner vs. Maidana rematch
One fight that might still sell for Broner would be a rematch with former two-division world champion Marcos Maidana, a fighter that handed him his first career defeat seven years ago in December 2013. Maidana beat Broner by a 12 round unanimous decision and punished him with power shot in a two knockdown performance.
Broner was down in rounds two and eight in that contest. Nevertheless, the fight was an exciting one to watch, as Broner, who was still unbeaten at the time, tried his best and fought back as best as he could.
Ultimately, Maidana had too much power and was too busy on offense for Broner to deal with in that exciting fight. There would be a lot of fan interest in a rematch between Adrien and Maidana if they were to fight in 2021, but they would likely need to make the contest at 154.
Maidana has put on a lot of weight, and he probably won’t be able to get back down to 147 without going through an extended boot camp-type training camp, which would leave him partially drained.
That would be good news for Broner because he would have a decent shot at beating Maidana if he’s weight drained. But apart from that, Maidana would still be viewed as the favorite simply because of his power and his superior work rate. Any fighter that throws a lot of shots will have a good chance of beating Broner at this point in his career.