Boxing analyst Al Bernstein thinks Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) will be under the microscope in his next fight against Carlos Molina (17-1-1, 7 KO’s) on May 3rd on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana next month. Bernstein feels that it doesn’t matter that Broner is facing a less than dangerous opponent in Carlos Molina, fans will still be watching Broner closely to see if he can rebound mentally from his devastating beat down he suffered last December at the hands of Maidana. Fans and the boxing media will want to see if Broner is the same fighter he was before the loss.
“How he comes back from the Maidana fight can define him more as a fighter than anything leading up to and including the Maidana fight, because everyone will be looking to see how mentally tough Broner is,” Bernstein said to the Boxing Channel. He was previously filled with so much swagger before. Has the loss taken the swagger away? For Adrien Broner this is a very important test. All eyes in the boxing world will be watching that show, and we’ll see if he’s still ‘The Problem’ for other fighters or a problem for himself.”
Broner is in a situation where he’s likely going to come out looking bad no matter how good he performs. Golden Boy picked Amir Khan’s knockout victims for Broner to fight in Carlos Molina, and that’s going to put Broner in a situation where he’ll need to top what Khan did. But it’s a situation where Broner won’t get much credit even if he blasts through Molina, because he’s been inactive since the loss to Khan in 2012.
Beating a fighter coming off of a year and a half layoff like the one Molina has had means that Broner won’t get credit for a win. He should have known that and told Golden Boy and/or Al Haymon to find him someone a lot better than this. If they wanted to make Khan look bad, then they should have selected Breidis Prescott or Lamont Peterson for Broner to fight, as they both beat Khan in the past.