By Matt Lieberman: Adrien Broner will be making a comeback this Friday, June 9, against Bill Hutchinson in a 10-round fight that his new promoter Don King hopes will lead to AB being pursued by the world champions.
King wants to see the 33-year-old Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs) win by a spectacular knockout over Hutchinson (20-2-4, 9 KOs) because he needs to entertain “the people.”
Broner-Hutchinson will headline at the Casino Miami Jai Alai, Miami. King’s hopes of the former four-division world champion Broner rejuvenating his career may end in disappointment on his part because AB would have already done so if he had anything left.
Broner should have enough left to defeat Hutchinson, who isn’t a world class fighter, but it’s unlikely that Adrien will look overly impressive. AB hasn’t fought in two years since 2021; before that, he’d been out of the ring for two years.
You get the idea. Broner has been treating boxing like a part-time hobby since 2018, and not surprisingly, his skills have eroded badly to the point where he looks nothing likee the fighter he’d been in his glory days.
On the undercard this Friday, 42-year-old former two-time super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (21-3, 14 KOs) faces little known Charlie Clemente-Andino (14-0, 5 KOs) in a 10rround fight.
Earlier in Broner’s career, he was viewed as a Mayweather clone and thought to be the guy that would carry boxing after he retired.
However, after receiving a vicious beating at the hands of the powerful Argentinian Marcos Marcos in 2013, Broner was never the same. Although, with the help of strategic match-making, Broner was able to keep his career limping along, he failed each he was matched against tough opposition.
Undercard
Ahmed Elbiali vs. Rodolfo Gomez Jr
Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Charlie Clemente-Andino
Antonio Williams vs. Braulio Rodriguez
Neslan Machado vs. Jonathan Smith
Nigel Fennell vs. Antonio Perez
Dorian Bostic vs. Joshua Clark
Adlay Rodriguez vs. Raul Garcia Jr
Brayan Leon vs. TBA
Alex Esponda vs. TBA
“All right, so now when the bell rings and the fight starts, what is it that Don King, who you I’ve always thought you underestimated your boxing knowledge, or at least you don’t brag about it, but you’ve been around the sport for many decades and have been involved with some
of the greatest fighters of all time,” said Dan Rafael to FITE to legendary promoter Don King, talking bout Adrien Broner’s fight this Friday night against Bill Hutchinson.
“I know that you know what you’re looking at when you see these guys do their business inside the ring. So the bell rings for Broner-Hutchins. What is it that you want to see from Broner to make you believe that
you’re is a path forward to getting him to a world title? You can bring
opportunities to guys, but it’s up to them to actually perform. So what do you want to see from this man in the ring?”
Broner needs to look spectacular
“I want to see him be himself because he was a four-time, as you said very distinctly and succinctly that he was a four-time individual champion of four different weight categories of the world,” said promoter Don King about Adrien Broner.
“Therefore, be who you want to be, who you have been. Let us restore
the glory of yesteryear and bring it back in here to the head to the floor. Yeah, now I want to see him please the people, and it’s really what counts for me is the people, which are my most important assets.
“That’s what I promote; I promote the people because the people are the most important, and when he [Broner] goes out there and if he demonstrates to the people that he’s there and he didn’t come just to play monopoly or you just played a little game with chess or romance or whatever it is.
“He came to fight, and he came to please them and to praise them. He’s got to do the best he can to be able to knock out and deal detrimentally to destroy this guy [Hutchinson] in the ring. He didn’t hug him when he gets through with knocking him down. That’s what I’m looking for, the people’s response,” said King.
“If he does that and he wins the fight, and you’re pleased with the performance, and he’s pleased with the performance, and then move on to the next situation, what types of fights do you think you can get for him?” said Rafael about Broner. “What are the names or the bigger events that you can see down the road if everything goes well for him against Hutchinson?”
Adrien will be in demand
“Well, you know what, he’s going to win the world because when he wins the heart of the people, I want him to become the people’s champion,” said King about Adrien. “We need to sanctioning bodies of the great WBC, WBA, IBO, IBF, and WBO; they need those types of
sanctions for their organization.
“But to be sanctioned, you’ve got to be sanctioned in the heart in the mind of the people, and when he [Broner] becomes a people’s champion, he can fight. All the champions are calling. This is a reverse fortune. Usually, when you got a champion, you want to be able
to get somebody that will be able to fight him.
“You got to come and deal to get the title. The champions are calling me now to get Broner. Broner comes through; each champion is trying to get you to get him because they know what it means to them. M-o-n-e-y. So that means he brings the heart of the people with him.
“He can’t afford to let the people down. He can’t afford to let himself down, but the people, I keep telling him, this is the most important. Focus and put your you put your man in your hands. I want to
see you throw left hooks, right hands, and jabs to keep him [Hutchinson] off of balance.
“Do what you know you can do. Do you know what I mean? Let’s do it again,” said King bout his hopes for Broner’s performance on Friday.
