All photos by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing
Saturday, July 29, 2017, at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Adrien “The Problem” Broner suffered his third career loss.
Mikey Garcia improved his record to 37-0, 30 KOs with a dominating unanimous-decision victory over Broner, who fell to 33-3, 24 KOs.
While the crowd was largely pro-Broner at the sound of the opening bell, Garcia gained a lot of supporters after Saturday night’s impressive performance.
Garcia, the reigning WBC Lightweight titleholder who bumped up to Junior Welterweight, put on a clinic against the former four-division champion Broner. Garcia, a three-division champion himself, completely outworked and outclassed Broner throughout the entirety of the fight.
“This is definitely one of my best performances ever,” said Garcia after the fight. “I think I controlled the fight in the early rounds, and I kept the activity up. [Broner] is a great fighter who has great skills. I was the superior fighter tonight.”
Although Garcia was coming up in weight and Broner was coming down, Garcia was the aggressor–applying constant pressure and consistently walking Broner down throughout the fight. Garcia was the busier fighter and used his ring IQ to effectively cut off the ring and pick Broner apart. The judges saw the bout 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112.
This loss sparks a lot questions about Broner as a fighter–can Broner now be considered a B class fighter?
Was he really ever that good? And after his third loss at only 28 years of age, what is next for Adrien “The Problem” Broner?
While it seems crazy to write someone off at 28 years old, it’s not absolutely absurd in the sport of boxing. While a comeback is not out of the question for Broner, it would take serious changes in both fight preparation and execution on fight night.
This loss simply opened a lot of fans’ eyes and has them wondering at what level Broner should be competing. Some boxing fans are even going as far as hoping he hangs up the gloves and retires.
Though it is hard to imagine Broner retiring anytime soon, I think he needs to reevaluate his career before jumping into another high-level competition fight because another loss would be detrimental at this point.
Broner has a lot of options because he has the flexibility in fighting in several different weight divisions. Some possible fight options for Broner include Timothy Bradley (if he doesn’t retire), Danny Garcia, Brandon Rios, Jesse Vargas or even Victor Ortiz after his impressive knockout victory Sunday night at Rabobank Theater against Saul Corral.
But questions remain–is Broner as good of a fighter as we were all led to believe?
Can Broner stack up against and A or even high B level fighter anymore? One thing is certain about Broner, he brings the drama and therefore he brings out not only a huge fan base but plenty of haters who can’t help but watch either.
Broner is a television ratings phenomenon for boxing–he was a part of the highest rated telecast in 2015 when he defeated John Molina in the Premier Boxing Champions on NBC debut. He also helped draw a record rating on Spike with his win over Ashley Theophane and in his last bout against Adrian Granados he registered the highest rating Showtime had seen since 2015.
A lot of things are up in the air in regards to Adrien Broner’s career right now, but the fact is, Broner will continue to be The Problem and whether you love him or hate him, he is not going anywhere anytime soon.
