Former four-weight titlist Adrien Broner is a strange type of a guy; a man who perplexes many. One of them is promoter Bob Arum. Recently, out of the blue but after his draw with Jessie Vargas, Broner, for reasons known only to him, called out former 140 and 147 pound champ Timothy Bradley – who retired last year and now works full-time as a commentator for ESPN.
“Timothy Bradley bring yo bitch ass back and get this ass whupping, p***y, meet me at 144,” Broner wrote on social media.
Now, while this fight would have been an interesting one, perhaps a very exciting one, back when Bradley was still fighting, it’s not even a match-up worth talking about now. This pretty classless move by Broner, calling out a retired fighter, is one of the things that makes Arum shake his head at him.
Speaking yesterday at a presser for tomorrow night’s Lomachenko-Linares fight in New York, Arum expressed his incredulity as far as “The Problem” goes.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with Adrien Broner,” Arum told the media as quoted by RingTV.com. “Timothy Bradley has a multi-year deal with ESPN where he’s a commentator. You don’t see people in football calling out Troy Aikman to come back and play quarterback, or be calling out Jason Witten to come back to being a tight end. So the idea of calling out Timothy Bradley ….why doesn’t he call out Leonard or Hagler? Forget about [Broner’s] performance or non-performance. I’m not willing to put him on a program of mine because of his language and his demeanour in the promotion. I don’t want any part of him.”
Broner has of course upset people other than Arum – even launching a nasty verbal attack on Leonard Ellerbe ahead of the fight with Vargas, Ellerbe being Broner’s promoter – but he has, with Arum’s ban, limited his possible next fight or fights as far as who the opponent might be.
Why is Broner wasting time calling out Bradley (who, by the way, would have kicked Broner’s you know what had he met him in his 140 prime)? If he wants to carry on fighting (and Arum aside, plenty of people wish Broner and his foul tongue would just go away), Broner should be calling for a return with Vargas, or a fight with one of the guys to have beaten him.
Broner has never been knocked out in a fight, and maybe the possibility of seeing the fastest but also most tasteless mouth in the sport today get well and truly silenced will keep his “fans” tuning in. Just don’t expect to see Broner on ESPN any time soon.