By William Lloyd: Eddie Hearn is working on putting together a big welterweight match between Conor Benn and Adrien Broner for December. Hearn is trying to find the right price to get the management for the 32-year-old Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs) to agree to.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn has already talked to Broner’s manager Luis DeCubas, who works with PBC, about how much it’ll take to get AB to sign to face Benn.
Although Hearn hasn’t found the right number yet, he’s hopeful of making a deal.
Benn needs a big name opponent
Hearn is trying to turn the 24-year-old Benn, the son of former two-division world champion Nigel Benn, into a star, and he needs to match him against former world champions like Broner to get him there.
Benn still has a fight he needs to win against Adrian Granados (21-8-3, 15 KOs) on September 4th before he’s free to potentially face the former four-division world champion, Broner, in December or early 2022.
Conor and Granados will be meeting in a 12 round fight on the Mauricio Lara vs. Josh Warrington card on September 4th on DAZN at the Headingley Rugby League Stadium in Leeds.
Granados, 32, is a step up for Benn from his last two opponents Samuel Vargas and Sebastian Formella. If Benn can beat Granados, Broner is the next logical move for him.
“I love the Adrien Broner fight,” Hearn said to iFL TV. “I think it’s [Benn vs. broner] a massive fight. I’ve spoken to Luis DeCubas at PBC. I’ve talked numbers with him. It wasn’t enough for him, but we’ll keep going.
“Conor Benn against Adrien Broner, whether that’s December or early next year, these are the kinds of fights,” said Hearn.
Broner recently came off a two-year layoff to defeat Jovanie Santiago by a 12 round unanimous decision in January on Showtime. As one guess, Broner didn’t look sharp in laboring to an unimpressive victory over Santiago.
Moreover, Broner didn’t bring in big ratings, and he’s been sitting inactive ever since, asking for fights and still not getting any.
It’s unclear whether Broner is asking for too much money for what he brings to the table nowadays as a faded star or if there’s nothing for him right now.
Broner could give Benn issues
If Broner can get things together physically with his dieting and training, he might give Benn a run for his money. It isn’t very likely, though. Broner’s lack of success over the last six years suggests that he’ll lose to Benn and likely look bad in doing so.
Benn will need to pace himself against Broner because this isn’t a guy that he’s going to be able to throw a flurry on in the first round and get a fast stoppage like he did last April in his fight with journeyman Samuel Vargas.
If Benn does that against Broner, he might get knocked out because AB is a veteran, and he’ll take advantage of Conor’s reckless fighting style.
Sadly, the once-promising boxing career of Broner has been on a rapid slide downward since his loss to Marcos Maidana in 2013. That was the beginning of a free fall for Broner, with him losing these fighters over the last seven years:
- Shawn Porter
- Manny Pacquiao
- Mikey Garcia
Broner has won just once in the last four years since 2017, and that was against Santiago, who isn’t a major player.
Interestingly, Granados lost a controversial 10 round split to Broner in February 2017 in AB’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. Many boxing fans that saw that fight had Granados winning the fight quite comfortably.
That fight showed that Broner doesn’t belong at 147, and he’s not effective at 140. However, at this point in Broner’s career, he’s been fighting at 147 for too long for him to be able to return to his best weight classes at 130 and 135.
