By Matt Lieberman: Free agent Adrien Broner isn’t a fighter that Eddie Hearn wants to sign to his Matchroom promotional stable. Broner isn’t the draw he once was, Hearn notes, and he feels that trying to sign him won’t be successful.
According to Hearn, the former four-division world champion Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs) likely won’t agree with the offer that he would make to him. Hence, Hearn says he won’t attempt to sign the 33-year-old.
Broner revealed recently that he’d parted ways with BLK Prime, and he was making it known that he’s available to be signed by any of the top promoters in the game.
AB living in the past
Hearn would obviously be ideal for Broner, but that’s not going to happen, given that AB will likely want a price that is based on the value he once had during his best years over a decade ago.
If Broner were still fighting at the level he was back in 2011 when he was at the top of his game, he could command a huge price for Hearn to sign, and it would make sense for him to try and add him to his Matchroom company.
A fight Hearn attempted to make a while ago was Broner vs. Conor Benn, but nothing came of it, unfortunately.
Despite Broner’s two years of inactivity since his last fight against Jovanie Santiago in 2021, Hearn still believes a match between him and Benn would be huge. However, Benn says he wants to face one of these guys in his next: Manny Pacquiao, Gervonta Davis, Errol Spence, or Chris Eubank Jr.
Obviously, it makes sense for Benn to be looking at facing one of those guys rather than a faded old-timer like Broner, who is well past his prime.
Hearn: Broner “not the draw he once was”
“There was a time when I was desperate to sign Adrien Broner. I thought he was amazing,” said Eddie Hearn to the DAZN Boxing Show when asked if he was interested in signing promotional free agent Adrien Broner to his Matchroom stable.
“I’ve had three or four messages in the last week with people trying to get me to work with Adrien Broner. He has value; he’s still a good fighter. Most of them, yeah,” said Hearn when asked if he “ignored” the messages that were sent to him about Broner.
“I just feel there’s a value, a price, and I just feel that it’s one that Adrien probably WON’T agree with. He’ll struggle to accept that. Obviously, he’s made a lot of money and been involved in big fights, but he’s not the draw he once was. He’ll always be a draw be because he’s got a great story.
“He has value. Conor Benn against Adrien Broner is a fight that we were trying to make previously. Yeah, I would do that fight,” said Hearn when asked if he would still be interested in making Benn vs. Broner fight.
“He [Conor Benn] wants to fight Pacquiao, Eubank, Errol Spence, Gervonta Davis. These are the fights that he’s telling me that he’ll take next,” said Hearn about the fights that Benn wants next.
