By Allan Fox: On February 20th Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner will face Jovanie Santiago and Otto Wallin will take on Dominic Breazeale live on Showtime. The fight will be taking place at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. The action kicks off at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. Fight fans outside the US can watch the fight on FITE TV (click here)
Former four-division world champion Broner needs to shine in a big way against Santiago, and show the boxing world that he’s not a ‘shot fighter’ as many of them believe him to be.
They think Broner is a guy living off of yesterday’s accomplishments because he hasn’t won a fight since 2017, and he’s looked subpar even before that. You got to go back eight years to when Broner last put in an impressive performance against Gavin Rees in 2013. Broner’s downfall isn’t just because of him moving up to a weight
If Broner beats the undefeated Santiago (14-0-1, 10 KOs), it’s likely that he’ll return to the 147-lb division if he’s given an offer for a well-paying fight against one of the PBC welterweights like Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, or Yordenis Ugas.
That’s the only division Broner has any chance of making money unless he can melt back down to his old weight class of 135.
Broner’s fights since 2013:
- Manny Pacquiao – UD 12 loss
- Jessie Vargas – Draw 12
- Mikey Garcia – UD 12 loss
- Adrian Granados – SD 10
- Ashley Theophane – TKO 9
- Khabib Allakhverdiev – UD 12 win
- Shawn Porter – UD 12 loss
- John Molina Jr – UD 12 win
- Emanuel Taylor – UD 12 win
- Carlos Molina – UD 10 win
- Marcos Maidana – UD 12 loss
- Paulie Malignaggi – SD 12 win
- Gavin Rees – TKO 5 win
Broner has taken a lot of weight off lately since starting training, and he expects to be able to make the 140-lb weigh-in limit for the fight against Santiago. With that said, Broner looks thin and not youthful and strong at the weight.
Broner has the appearance of someone that has dropped a lot of weight with a crash diet and doesn’t look powerful.
With Top Rank fighters Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor holding the four titles at 140, Broner will be in a position where he would likely need to wait until the winner of the Taylor vs. Ramirez fight vacates the four 140-lb titles and moves up to 147.
Until that happens, Broner can stay busy fighting top contenders like Regis Prograis, Jose Zepeda, and Viktor Postol. It’s highly debatable whether Broner can beat any of them, but at least he won’t be short of options for good fights.
Otto Wallin vs. Dominic Breazeale
In the co-feature bout, former two-time heavyweight world title challenger Dominic ‘Trouble’ Breazeale (20-2, 18 KOs) will be coming off a nearly two-year layoff to face Otto Wallin (21-1, 14 KOs) in a 12 round bout.
Breazeale, 35, last fought in May 2019, losing to former WBC champion Deontay Wilder by a first-round knockout.
Wilder caught Breazeale cold in hurting him with a big right hand to the head, which was the end of the story. Breazeale’s other loss on his record came against IBF champion Anthony Joshua in 2016, losing by a seventh-round knockout.