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It seems that right now Adrien Broner’s career and personal life is in tatters. Jessie Vargas has offered “The Problem” a rematch which the former three weight champion is yet to decide to take. The Cincinnati boxer achieved the aforementioned feat at the age of just twenty three years old when he won the WBA title after beating Khabib Allakhverdiev at 140lb in 2015.
But ever since facing his first loss against Marcos Maidana on December 14th, 2013 any plans to emulate his idol and pal, Floyd Mayweather, has gone south. And the question that needs to be explored is, just what caused that to happen when at one point he was looked at as a future star of boxing?
Before attempting to take over the welterweight division, Adrien had faced some good names, even if one would possibly not think of them as elite. Daniel Ponce De Leon is probably the best opponent that Broner faced and beaten before the Maidana loss. But the decision to give him the win was quite controversial. I did not personally score the fight, but I thought it was quite clear to see that De Leon should have come away as the winner there. The Mexican was effective at getting in his punches to the body and head and then moving out of range. He was also generally the more aggressive of the two. Nevertheless, it was onwards and upwards for Broner.
I think if we examine Adrien’s record and career ever since 2013 then we will get the answer this article is attempting to find.
In boxing, it is perilous to take short cuts. But that is what Broner did after deciding to bypass the light-welterweight class in order to jump up straight to welterweight and first take on Paulie Malignaggi, who he won over by a split decision. Next up was Marcos Maidana. But the hard punching man from Argentina had already faced a slew of recognisable names by then including Amir Khan, Josesito Lopez, Victor Ortiz and Erik Morales. He did not beat all of those names but he picked up a lot of experience along the way. And he had knocked out all but three of his opponents. The ferocity, strength and weight was something that I believe Broner could not handle and he looked out of his league.
Adrien racked up three wins after but lost again to Shawn Porter at a catchweight of 144lb. Again, he went back down to 140lb and secured more victories, losing to every other opponent barring two at a higher weight. To me, it is clear that it is a combination of two things. The first being that welterweight is a weight class that is just something that Adrien cannot handle. And the other thing, that may be a hard pill for Adrien to swallow, is that he simply wasn’t good enough to beat the elite names at 147lb.
So, if a comeback is realised at some stage then campaigning at 140lb would be his correct calling. With the likes of Gervonta Davies, Josh Taylor, Jack Catterall and Regis Prograis there are enough names there right now for Broner to make some good money.
But he may want to take his time and not rush back. For him, it would be a marathon. Not a race.
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