By Adam Baskin: Inactive former multi-weight world champion Adrien Broner has signed with legendary long-time promoter Don King. Broner says his goal with King as his promoter is to win world titles, unifying and defending them.
The way Broner looked in his last fight two years ago against Jovanie Santiago, the way he’s going to fight for a world title is if the shot is given to him without having to earn it.
If Broner has to fight his way into a title opportunity like normal fighters do, he’ll likely fail miserably, particularly if he continues to campaign as a welterweight.
It’s been ages since the 33-year-old Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs), and it will be difficult for King to resurrect AB to bring him back to a world championship-level fighter. We’ll see if King can keep Broner active or if he’ll sit for years without fighting and balloon up in wait and never to be seen again inside a ring.
Broner hasn’t looked impressive in a decade since his fifth round knockout victory over Gavin Rees in 2013, and that was when AB was fighting at lightweight.
He’s looked like a shadow of his former self since moving up to welterweight in a title challenge against then-WBA 147-lb champion Paulie Malignaggi in June 2013.
Can Don King resurrect Broner’s career?
In a press release sent today, it was revealed that the Cincinnati native Broner has signed with King, but it didn’t say for how many fights/years. It’s fair to say that the only shot that King has of refurbishing Broner is by using this approach:
- Keeping him busy – 4 fights per year
- Careful match-making
- Returning AB to 130-lb division
- A full-time trainer that lives with AB
“I can hardly wait to get back into the ring again. Winning a world title and constantly defending or unifying the titles is what I am aiming to do,” said Adrien Broner after signing with Don Kin
For the most part, boxing fans gave up on Broner many years ago after he stopped being relevant following his blowout loss to Marcos Maidana in 2013.
Interestingly, Broner has gotten several excellent payday fights in the last eight years against Mikey Garcia, Manny Pacquiao, and Shawn Porter, all of which he lost. Broner didn’t deserve any of those fights but got them anyway based on his distant past accomplishments.
Broner was recently briefly signed with BLK Prime for what was supposed to be a 12-month, three-fight deal, but after several scheduled fights fell out, AB parted ways. It’s unclear if Broner got any of what was rumored to be an eight-figure deal with them.