On February 16th, HBO will be presenting a pair of good fights, featuring WBC Lightweight Champion, Adrien “The Problem” Broner (25-0 with 21 KOs) returning to Atlantic City, where he last defeated Antonio DeMarco last November 17th, to square off against, the UK born, veteran, Gavin “The Rock” Rees (37-1-1 with 18 KOs). This is a fight that may be a prelude to a fight with another UK fighter, WBO Lightweight Champion, Ricky Burns, of course he must get through Miguel Vasquez 1st, but that’s another story.
As most of us know, Broner is a confident, borderline cocky, fighter with top notch skills to so far, back up his nonstop mouth. As much as he likes to talk, he seemed normal when talking about his opponent, Rees, when his fight was announced. Broner stated, “You all know what to expect. I know I’m going against a guy who’s just exciting, 140 or something like that. I really haven’t heard too much of him, but I know he’s going to come and fight. Everybody comes to win a world title when they fight for a world title.”
Then of course, a little bit of the now known Broner-style had to come out, as he said, “It is what it is. I’m a two time world champion, two-time at the age of 23. There aren’t too many people who can say they’re a two time world champion. And we can fight today. I’ve been training.” He continued, “So, February 16th I want Gavin. Gavin, like I said, I really don’t know this guy. I just want him to bring his A-game because if you want to get things just right you have to bring nothing but you’re A game, so I just hope he’s ready and I hope he is in shape because it’s going to be a long night.”
Broner was then asked about if he contemplated moving up to 140 to fight a bigger fighter and more known fighter before taking this one. Broner responded, “Negative. That’s what everybody wants you to do. They’ve just seen me dominate and put on a great performance, a hell of a performance that I certainly don’t want to downgrade on my performance against the world champion, he was the world champion, DeMarco, and they want me to just automatically go up to 140. No, I just moved up to this weight. I still make the weight eating steak and potatoes every night at training camp. I make the weight comfortably, so I’m going to stay here for a lot of good fights that I still can have at 135 pounds. So, I’m going to flush out this lightweight division and then we can go up to the light welterweight and crush their dreams. So, we’re going to stay here for a while.”
The comment can be taken in a good and bad way as we may not get the big fights we wanted to see. However, it’s good that he’s not moving too fast and that he wants to clean out a division 1st. Next point brought up was Broner’s level of competition, asked how he gets himself up for a guy who isn’t a big name in this country and has no US reputation. Broner then said, “Like I said before, he’s a former world champion so he has to be somebody, even though I really don’t know him that much, I have to keep throwing that in there because I really don’t know these guys. I just fight whoever they put in front of me. People come to me and they’re like you’re handpicking fighters. I don’t pick my fights. I just fight whoever is weighing in on the time it’s to weigh in. Sometimes I don’t even know, sometimes I don’t even know until three weeks out or a month out. So, this is new to me. I know Gavin’s not just a walkover. He was a world titlist and he’s got to have a record, 37-1 or something like that with a draw. That’s a hell of a record on the professional level.”
Of course nowadays you can’t seem to mention Adrien Broner without mention Floyd Mayweather, So when talk about Broner being on the video with Mayweather and probably being on his May 4th card, Broner did say, “If I do come out of this fight untouched there is a great possibility that I will be on the May 4th card.” However, he did also say, “I’ve got the speed and I’ve got power in both hands, so it only takes one mistake. And that’s for both fighters, that’s for me and him. And in boxing it only takes one mistake and a fight can be over.”
Broner was then asked how he prepares for Rees in the next month, when he says he doesn’t know much about Rees, and then Broner responded, “I don’t need to get acquainted with nothing he’s going to bring because whatever he brings to the table I’m going to be ready for. Like I said before I don’t watch tape of fighters. I don’t study their best move. I don’t study their best punch because at the end of the day if you got your best punch or if you’ve got your best move, all of it means nothing if you can’t land a shot.”
Of course the interview couldn’t be done without 1 more Broner, slightly cocky comment, as he ended the call by saying, “All right, Gavin, welcome to America. Train hard, man. You can come and watch training camp. I’ll help you out.” Come mid February Adrien Broner will get a chance to back up his talk again. Will someone finally shut him up? Will Broner continue to roll, or in his words, “Flush out” the entire lightweight division? Will Gavin Rees shock the world and make this his coming out party? These are all questions that will be decided February 16th, so don’t miss it.
