Adrien Broner will not be having his debut in the pay-per-view arena just yet. It appears Broner will be doing that in 2014 more likely, but for now his bout with Marcos Maidana will be heading to San Antonio, Texas on December 14th to headline a triple header in a newly formed card. The move comes as no real surprise to most pundits as the PPV fight was heading into roughly four weeks out and had not one ad or special created for it. Not the ideal situation for a debuting PPV talent like Broner facing his toughest test to date. The undercard only for the PPV card would have been the most expensive since the Juan Manuel Marquez – Juan Diaz II fight.
So what happens now? Well, the original PPV card which featured Broner vs. Maidana, Jesus Soto-Karass vs. Keith Thurman, Carlos Molina vs. TBA and Alfredo Angulo will happen later. What you can now expect is two weekends in December on regular Showtime with more fights.
On December 14th you can now expect stacked card with Broner vs. Maidana, Soto-Karass vs. Thurman, Leo Santa Cruz vs. Cesar Seda Jr, Victor Ortiz vs. Alfonso Gomez and Beibut Shumenov vs. Tamas Kovacs. This card was originally slated for Las Vegas, but due to the consolidation of the November 30th card that was originally going to be held in San Antonio with Shawn Porter and Leo Santa Cruz it is now longer. San Antonio will be still getting a show as Vegas is left knowing a big show will be around the corner soon.
The December 7th card will now consist of Devon Alexander vs. Shawn Porter as well as Erisandy Lara vs. Austin Trout, Sakio Bika vs. Anthony Dirrell and headlining the bout Paulie Malignaggi vs. Zab Judah in a homecoming of sorts. Ok, that’s a lot of information, but what does this say about Broner who has two fights this year, but really only one that people remember and a lot of people think he lost it. On top of this, Broner is not really looking in shape, although by the time he gets into the ring he always appears to be in the best shape possible. It is becoming painstakingly clear that “AB” is enjoying life as much as he is training.
What may happen is that Broner might fight on the undercard of the next Floyd Mayweather fight and that may introduce him to the pay per view audience. Though Broner pulls strong ratings, he is unproven as a PPV commodity and the fact is you would rather know you have a sure thing than rush in and possibly get railed on for putting up poor numbers. The lack of the push for the PPV simply states that Showtime is not ready for Broner to be at that level.
