By Jim Calfa: Adrien Broner’s scheduled fight against Michael Williams Jr is now in jeopardy for February 25th, as the 23-year-old Williams Jr has reportedly suffered a broken jaw and won’t be able to fight on that date on BLK Prime PPV.
Williams Jr’s father, Michael Williams Sr, took to social media to reveal the injury news, and he’s hoping they can postpone the fight. It’s unknown whether BLK Prime will be on board with the idea of postponing the fight, however, because obviously, tickets have already been sold.
If Williams Jr’s can’t take the fight, we’ll see if another fighter can step in with a little more than a week’s notice to face the former four-division world champion Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs). It’s entirely possible because Broner is arguably an easy mark for any top-15 contenders.
In theory, Broner’s management could easily find a contender from the 135, 140, or 147-lb divisions to step in and face him on February 25th. But the problem with that idea is Broner would likely lose to any legit top 15 contenders from 135 to 147, as he’s pretty well shot at this stage of his career and arguably not capable of beating top 15 competition.
This is Broner’s third opponent that has fallen out for his February 25th date, making one poster joke that AB has a “hex” on him since he chose to make a comeback after being out of the ring for two years.
Broner, 33, was initially supposed to fight Ivan Redkach, but he couldn’t take the fight and was replaced with Hank Lundy. The 39-year-old lasted all of a week before he was dropped
Then it was unknown fighter Michael Williams Jr, who Broner sounded plenty worried about fighting.
The good news for Broner is he no longer has to worry about Williams Jr. The bad news is Broner’s February 25th fight might need to be postponed unless they can find him someone quick.
If Broner is still on good terms with Al Haymon, he should be able to dig up a body to shovel into the ring for him to fight on short notice to save the BLK Prime card on February 25th.
Again, the issue is that Broner is too vulnerable at this stage of his career to fight a contender. As such, unless a played-out journeyman or a flawed prospect is found, Broner’s card might need to be postponed.