Adrien “The Problem” Broner, 25-0 (21), makes his first WBC lightweight
title defense Saturday at Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, NJ, against
British and European lightweight champion Gavin “The Rock” Rees, 37-1-1
(18), from Wales, UK. This will be the HBO main event promoted by Golden
Boy Promotions.
Though Rees is Ranked No. 15 in the WBC he is No. 2 in the WBA while No.
1 is Richard Abril and the title vacant. Why he passed on this to take
on the more dangerous Broner time will tell. He is also No. 5 in the
WBO. His only loss was back in 2008 for the WBA light welterweight title
losing in the final round to Andriy Kotelnyk. He has since won 10 and
had a technical draw with Dery Mathews. In his last fight in July of
2012 he stopped Mathews.
Broner, is like the second coming of Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor with both
coming out of Cincinnati, OH. He has stopped 15 of his last 16
opponents. He stopped Antonio DeMarco in his last fight in November to
win the lightweight title. He had previously won the WBO Super
featherweight title in November of 2011 stopping Vicente Martin
Rodriguez. He defended that title twice including stopping Vicente
Escobar, 26-4 (15), who fight’s on the undercard against Edner Cherry,
30-6-2 (16).
NABF super middleweight champion Sakio “The Scorpian” Bika, 30-5-2 (21)
of Australia now living in L.A. meets Nikola Siekioca, 25-0 (17), of
Serbia, now living in Montenegro, who won the WBC International super
middleweight title in 2011. Bika best known for his appearance in “the
Contender” series has fought for world titles with WBC champ Markus
Beyer (TD2), IBF/WBO Joe Calzaghe (L12) and WBA Super champ Andre Ward
(L12).
Philadelphia’s Demitrius “The Gladiator” Hopkins, 32-2-1 (12) meets
Charles “Killa” Whittaker, 39-13-2 (23), of Miami, FL, who defends his
USBA title over 12. Olympian, Escobedo, 26-4 (15), of Woodland, CA,
takes on Edner Cherry, 30-6-2 (16), of Wauchula, FL, in a super
featherweight 10.
Olympian Rau’shee Warren, 2-0 (0), of Cincinnati meets Ricardo
Hernandez, 5-0 (1), in a bantamweight 4. Robert Easter, 2-0 (2), of
Cincinnati meets Jose Valderrama, 2-3 (2), in a welter 4. Philadelphia’s
Wahid Raheem, 3-0 (1), meets Ismael Serrano, making his debut in a
super featherweight 4. Jamel Herring, 1-0 (0), of Coram, NY, meets
Carlos Lopez, 4-2 (0), in a light welter 4.
~~~
Injuries have caused several key fights to be postponed. Danny
Garcia’s bout against Zab Judah is now scheduled in April after Garcia
suffered a rib injury. The fight most of us had looked forward to
seeing on Saturday, the undercard rematch of heavyweights Johnathon
Banks and Seth Mitchell, got derailed when Banks broke a finger in
training.
So we’re left with Saturday night’s event from Atlantic City
featuring Adrien “The Problem” Broner (25-0, 21 KOs) fighting former
junior welterweight titleholder Gavin Rees of Wales (37-1-1, 18 KOs),
who signed on after Ricky Burns of Scotland dropped out, reportedly
because he wanted too big a payday, and moved up to lightweight.
Broner styles himself as a Floyd Mayweather type fighter and the
heir apparent to Money, working his defensive skills along with his
punching power inside the ring, while talking smack and showing off
outside the ring.
Promoter hype aside, Broner, admittedly still young at age 23,
hasn’t stepped up to face any true quality opponents. When Mayweather
was Broner’s age, he’d already beaten Diego Corrales, then Jose Luis
Castillo twice. In short order he went on to beat Arturo Gatti, Zab
Judah, Oscar de la Hoya (now the promoter of Saturday's event) and
Ricky Hatton along with other lesser players. Mayweather has earned the
right to mouth off.
Broner is a talent, but he still falls into the ranks of “up and
coming” talent. Arrive, and he earns the right to sing his own praises
all he wants when he can back it up. As long as he cultivates serious
training habits and lets his skills do the talking inside the ring,
keeping the circus act outside the ring (including his wackadoo daddy),
Broner will be a champion for many years and he’ll deserve the big
bucks and fame of his mentor.
But it won’t come from this fight. No disrespect to the tough Rees,
but being able to take a punch does not make you an opponent to be
feared. This is the first fight in the U.S. for Rees. His opponents
don’t count for much, when you fight guys with records like 2-36, 8-40,
and 26-110. Come on. Rees isn’t likely to have a lot of fans in the
Atlantic City audience. Rees will probably hang in there for more
rounds than Broner’s previous opponents, but this isn’t saying a whole
lot.
Broner has the speed of the best fighters, and enough punching power
to get the job done, if not the potential for that single wicked blow.
He employs the same sort of shoulder rolling, frustrating defense like
Mayweather, which forces his opponents to try and get inside on him.
But when they do, they get burned up close by Broner’s speed.
Broner easily made the 135 lightweight limit at weigh-in Friday
afternoon at 134 pounds; Rees weighed 134.5. Broner hasn’t always had
the best training habits, including the infamous failure to make weight
for a fight last July after posting photos of Twinkies and Twix candy bars, laughing about being a junk food junkie. No Adrien, you will never ever live that one down with me.
Broner came to the scales Friday with a soda can in his hand,
getting on the scale with it and taking a swig. Was he paid to promote
the brand name, or just showing off that he could drink a sugary soda
on the scale and still easily make weight? That’s how Broner rolls. He
then proceeded to yak in Rees’ ear, while Rees refused to turn toward
him and pose for the traditional face-off. Rees grabbed Broner’s
championship belt as it to say, “I’m going to take this off you
Saturday night.” Sorry Gavin, but that’s as close as you’re getting to
having that belt.
Without the Banks-Mitchell undercard, we’ll get to see Sakio Bika
vs. Nikola Sjekloca as the warm-up act. Both weighted 167.5 pounds for
this super welterweight title elimination fight. Once in a blue moon, a
fighter gets a chance like this on a much bigger stage and makes the
most of it. Bika (30-5-2, 21 KOs), age 33, might be best known for
winning the reality TV show “The Contender” in 2007. He was on the 2000
Olympic team for Camaroon, and now fights out of Australia.
Sjekloca (25-0, 7 KOs), age 34, is from Montenegro and has made easy
work of his opponents in Europe so far. This is his first fight in the
U.S., so we’ll see how he likes the Jersey Shore air in Atlantic City.
The undercard also includes non-televised fights featuring 2012 U.S.
Olympic Team members Rau’Shee Warren and Jamel Herring, along with
junior middleweight axtion between Charles Whittaker and Demetrius
Hopkins, and Vicente Escobedo against Edner Cherry in a junior
lightweight matchup.
~~~~~
Gavin Rees is not a bum.
He's 37-1 with 18
KOs, and he's held a major title in his career, but he has never faced a fighter of Adrien
Broner's class.
Part
of the reason for that is because when he does meet The Problem on
Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, it will be the first
time he's fought in the United States.
Combine his relatively
weak level of competition with his lack of notoriety in America, and
you have an opponent that most boxing fans could care less about. The
only reason most know who he is now is because he's about to come face
to face with the Problem.
There are no sure things in boxing—or in any sport—but
Broner defeating Rees is pretty close to it.
He
has the advantage in age, speed, power and overall athleticism. The
only thing that could possibly impede him is overconfidence.
While that might seem like an issue for a young man as brash as
Broner,
don't be fooled by the show. He takes boxing very seriously and he has
tons of pride. The carefree attitude is part of the persona he's
created to make himself more marketable.
The only fighters in the sport that are more polarizing is Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, and that is primarily because they have had long careers to build their legend.
Broner's career is still relatively young.
He's
only 23 years old, and this will be his 26th professional fight. He has
ascended to this status rather rapidly, and because of that he's at a
point where beating up guys like Rees won't advance his career much.
Many people say that
Broner is
trying to be like Mayweather—and I certainly agree with that to a
degree—and many have accused Floyd of ducking fighters in his career.
But take a look at Mayweather's resume and tell me there aren't quality
fighters there.
He's defeated Genaro Hernandez, the late Diego
Corrales, Oscar De La
Hoya, Shane Mosley, Miguel
Cotto, Arturo
Gatti,
Zab Judah and others.
Without
those wins, he wouldn't be as loved by some and hated by others because
there would be no validation to his greatness. Mayweather has created
the persona
Broner is trying to emulate, but part of the process is fighting and defeating good fighters.
Broner did that when he demolished Antonio
Demarco, but barring something truly shocking this fight against Rees is nothing more than a public workout.
If
Broner wants to ascend to the area he's fully capable of occupying, he needs to defeat some quality guys.
As
I said, he's only 23, so I'm not accusing him of taking on weak
opposition in his career just yet, but soon this type of opponent won't
be acceptable for a fighter of his caliber.
