Adrien Broner to fight Ivan Redkach in January at 140

By Boxing News - 09/22/2020 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner will be looking to pick up his first win in the last four years when he takes on Ivan Redkach in January 2021. Redkach is a good tune-up fight for Broner, who’s career has bottomed out due to his inability to win battles.

Redkach (23-5-1, 18 KOs) will be a live underdog against Broner because he typically throws a lot of punches, and those are the type of guys that Adrien struggles with due to his inability to throw a lot of shots. A win for Redkach isn’t out of the question against the inferior version of Broner we saw losing to Manny Pacquiao in 2019.

Broner’s last victory came in February 2017, with him being Adrian Granados by a highly controversial 10 round split decision in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. This writer saw the fight live, and he had Granados winning eight rounds to two.

Broner was outworked in every round by the visiting fighter Granados, and he looked shot. The last real win or Broner came in 2016 when he defeated Mayweather Promotions fighter Ashley Theophane by a 9th round knockout to win the vacant WBA light-welterweight title.

The World Boxing Association made it easy for Broner to capture their vacant WBA 140lb title by sanctioning his match with the then 35-year-old Theophane.

Image: Adrien Broner to fight Ivan Redkach in January at 140

Broner wants to KO Redkach

The 31-year-old former four-division world champion Broner (33-4-1, 24 KOs), realizes that his window to make money in boxing is closing on him, and he wants to take advantage of the time he has left.

“I would love to go in there and stop him, it’ll be a good fight,” said Broner about Redkach in talking to The 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 [Redkach] up though, he asking for it, he’s been begging for it.”

This may be a maybe a shock to Broner, but Redkach is a 2nd tier fighter and isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the world rankings at 140 or 147.

Lately, Redkach has been helping out with sparring for fighters like Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. As a result, I don’t know what Broner expects to get from the fans for beating Redkach. If he’s looking for admiration and an outpouring of praise for him if he defeats the Ukrainian fighter, he’s sadly mistaken.

There won’t be any praise, especially if Broner has difficulty winning as he did against Granados. Beating a low-level fighter like Redkach by a controversial decision might be the final nail on the coffin of Broner’s dead career.

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Broner hasn’t fought since losing to Manny Pacquiao by a 12 round unanimous decision in January 2019. By the time Adrien returns to the ring to face the 34-year-old journeyman Redkach, he’ll have been out of action for two solid years.

Broner coming off a 2-year layoff

Good fighters can stay out of boxing for two years without hurting them, but Broner isn’t likely to do well. He was struggling even before his long layoff began, and the inactivity isn’t expected to improve his game.

Recently, Broner surprised many people by asking for $10 million from SHOWTIME for him to fight, but that didn’t fly for him, unfortunately. There aren’t goo many fighters that can fetch an asking price of $10 million when they’ve come up empty in the win column in the last three years of their careers.

“I understand I only got one window, and my window is closing,” Broner said. “I’m still young, but I know that my window is closing.

“I’ve done a lot of things early in my career, but now is the time to make the most lucrative decisions, and that’s all I’m doing at this point.”

Broner’s window is already closed at this point, and he’s not going to be given any additional big money fights against the top guys at 147. He had his 15 minutes of fame at 147 in defeating WBA secondary welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi by a controversial 12 round split decision in June 2013.

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Most boxing fans that saw the Broner-Malignaggi fight felt that Malignaggi was robbed, as looked like the better fighter on the night. Since that win, Broner’s career has staggered along with him beating fringe level 140 and 147-pounders and losing to the quality fighters that he’s faced.

Broner’s defeats since 2013:

  • Marcos Maidana
  • Shawn Porter
  • Manny Pacquiao
  • Mikey Garcia

Broner fought Jessie Vargas to a controversial 12 round draw in 2018 in a fight that fans saw as a win for Jessie. If you add Vargas and Granados’ names on the list of fighters that have beaten Broner in the last seven years, his record doesn’t look so good.

Many people believe that Broner should have moved back down to 135 following his embarrassing 12 round decision defeat against Marcos Maidana in 2013. That fight showed that Broner lacked the size, power, and the work rate to beat top fighters at 140 and 147.

Broner chose to stay at 147 as the money he could make in that weight class was better than what he could get at 135. But the ultimate cost for Broner was his career sinking into the abyss to the point where he went from being the A-side to being the B-side for his matches.

Image: Adrien Broner to fight Ivan Redkach in January at 140

Before Broner lost to Maidana, he was seen as the next pay-per-view star, a guy that was supposed to carry the sport of boxing on his back after Floyd Mayweather Jr retired. Unfortunately for Broner, it didn’t work out for him. He lacked Mayweather’s hand speed and defensive ability to excel at 147, and his punching power didn’t carry up for him from the 135-lb division.