Unfortunately, PBC hoped for a barn burner with Molina. Instead the flames were doused when Molina failed to press the fight as promised. He impressed no one except for Referee Robert Byrd, who early on warned him to keep his head up. Molina’s style was head down, eyes closed, throwing wild right hand swings. He impressed no one, including the crowd.
Tonight professional boxing ended its prime time network television drought with the inaugural installment of the so called “Premier Boxing Champions” series. The return of boxing to network television seems to have taken center stage, even to the point of eclipsing the fights and the fighters themselves. While I am not one of those who believe that the future of boxing hinges on the success or failure of this foray into primetime, it’s clear that a lot was riding on tonight’s fight card. To that end we have to thank Robert Guerrero, who took what was shaping up to be a pair of mismatches, and gave the crowd someone to cheer for. In the lead in bout on the telecast, Adrien Broner used a snappy punishing jab to keep an inactive John Molina at bay, cruising to an uneventful 12 round decision. The crowd did not appreciate the lack of action, and at first blush it is easy to cast the blame in the direction of Adrien “The Problem” Broner. However, in light of the punishment that he sustained against Marcos Maidana, it would have been unrealistic to expect Adrien to take any greater risks than he had to in order to secure the victory. He even said as much in his post-fight interview, which was cut short when he started into his racially insensitive “Can Man” routine (which I personally find amusing).
WBA 147lb champion Keith Thurman (25-0, 21 KOs) gave Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (32-3-1, 18 KOs) a methodical beating in winning a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in their fight on NBC in the Premier Boxing Champion series at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The judges scored the fight 120-107, 118-109 and 118-108. Guerrero was cut over his left eye and knocked down in the 9th round after getting tagged hard by a left hand from Thurman.
In the 3rd, Thurman and Guerrero rammed heads with each other, leaving Thurman was a big goose egg on the left side of his forehead.
Since their arrival to the sport, both Adrien “The Problem” Broner (29-1, 22KO’s) and Keith “One Time” Thurman (24-0, 21KO’s) have lived in the proverbial ‘under the radar but above the rim’ echelon of the sport. Heavy with the hands, yet light with sympathy for anyone standing across from them with plans to prevent their rise to the top. While very different in presentation, there is a lone common thread between these two talents. Both seem to embody that patented “it” factor, making them easy to love, yet equally easy to hate.
Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions on NBC brings boxing back on free television with the winners likely to get a bump in terms of overall marketing reach and the potential viewership. All four fighters in the co-main events will face a crossroads in their respected careers. Two promising young boxers face two veteran fighters that have already been through the ringer a time or two.
Al Haymon will of course have a plan to feature the newly crowned Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder on NBC but the favorites for this Saturday night’s card are crucial to the success of the PBC on NBC as well. Adrien Broner being a full fledge named fighter in the sport and a young counterpunching knockout artist who remains unbeaten in 25 fights Keith Thurman.
In seven days, on Saturday, March, 7, boxing returns to primetime broadcast television with the debut of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on NBC at 8:30 p.m. ET. The debut of PBC on NBC features a pair of blockbuster bouts — Keith Thurman vs. Robert Guerrero, and Adrien Broner vs. John Molina Jr. — from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Blow-by-blow announcer Marv Albert and analyst “Sugar” Ray Leonard call the action. Al Michaels will host. Laila Ali and B.J. Flores serve as corner analysts, joined by reporter Kenny Rice.
Whilst talking to ThaBoxingVoice, former world champion Robert Guerrero discussed his upcoming bout with one of the upcoming stars of the sport – Keith Thuman. Guerrero discussed a bout he had with Andre Berto where both Berto and the public at large assumed the bigger, stronger Berto was going to walk through Guerrero and knock him out. Guerrero actually brutalised Berto in that fight. He knocked him down twice and bruised up his face severely. Berto managed to see the fight out to the twelfth, but if we were in the days of fifteen round fights it would have had to be stopped.
WBA welterweight champion Keith Thuman (24-0, 21 KOs) is looking to maintain his high KO percentage when he takes on former two division world champion Robert Guerrero (32-2-1, 18 KOs) in their upcoming bout on March 7th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Currently Thurman has won in all of his 24 outings and has taken 21 opponents out within the scheduled distance. In his last fight Thurman went up against long time European champion Leonard Bundu who had not had a loss in 33 fights, but failed to get the stoppage that has come to be expected of him. If he does not stop Guerrero people will start to say that he cannot maintain the same level of offense when he is against world level competition.
It`s official: Robert Guerrero will be facing Keith Thurman in the main event of the NBC Boxing premier set for March 7th. The undercard will feature Adrien Broner Vs. John Molina. Robert Guerrero has not fought since June of last year, where he earned a hard-fought victory over Yoshihiro Kamegai. Keith Thurman had an unimpressive win over Bundu but has kept himself more active than Guerrero. Thurman can punch and Guerrero can take a few to land his own. This should be a great fight and a big test for Thurman. We will see if Thurman’s power is too much for Guerrero or if he will he fold under Guerrero’s pressure.
(Note: As part of a week long breakdown, boxing scribe Vivek “Vito” Wallace analyzes where today’s top fighters stand, and whether or not 2015 could be the year many of them fall. This week long analysis will cover over 30 fighters from around the world)
ANDRE WARD
Throughout Boxing history we’ve seen drugs, alcohol, crime, and a host of other demons strip precious time away from distracted talents which they could never get back. In the case of Andre Ward, 2014 proved that even for a focused “Son of God” the ills of the sport can be far too much of a cross to bear. For Ward, a stiff game of politics has been more of a test outside the ring than his incredible talent ever allowed inside of it.