On Saturday night, Adrien Broner took another step toward returning to the pound for pound rankings after outclassing an overmatched and seemingly shot John Molina Jr. In Broner’s third fight in a row against overmatched competition since his loss to Marcos Maidana, many questions remain regarding just how good Broner can be.
The good news is that we will not have to wait too long for Broner to be given another chance to answer those questions. Broner has confirmed with Sean Zittel of ThaBoxingVoice that he will be fighting again relatively soon.
Broner said, “I will be a world champion at 140 pounds and my next fight will be on June 20th in Cincinnati, Ohio.”
Of course, you cannot mention a championship at 140 pounds without thinking about the April 11th PBC fight between Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. Is it possible Broner could battle the winner on June 20th? It’s doubtful, but he did address the possibility of fighting Garcia in the future.
“Listen… ya’ll know my slogan. Danny’s a nice friend of mine, me, and Al Haymon will have to talk and see what makes sense.”
Adrien Broner looked very good against Molina, but he didn’t make people forget about that fight with Maidana. Without having truly redeemed himself over his last three fights, can Broner risk another loss? Garcia (or Peterson) still seems like a big risk for him at this point. I expect a pretty calculated approach by Al Haymon when choosing Broner’s dance partner for June.
First let me get this out of the way… Broner will not be fighting Danny Garcia or Lamont Peterson in June. It will be too soon after their fight with each other to even consider. Also, Broner insists on fighting in Ohio which means he would have to be the A-side. As a challenger to either one of their titles, I cannot see them making a concession like that. So what are Adrien Broner’s options?
We can probably expect Broner to take on a top 10 junior welterweight like Chris Algieri in June if Haymon is willing to work with Algieri’s promoter. Algieri is a name; he doesn’t punch hard, and he’s been in the ring with a huge name in Manny Pacquiao and pulled off a win against Provodnikov. There is just enough prestige there with very little risk to Broner. I’m not saying this is his only option, but I am sure we can expect something along these lines.
If Haymon isn’t willing to work with another promoter before PBC establishes itself as a legitimate boxing brand, we can probably expect another throwaway fight for Broner in which he easily handles an overmatched fighter. That will be the safest option for both PBC and Adrien Broner, but I don’t see it elevating the status of either of them.
