Adrien Broner still talks a good game, even a great one, and “The Problem,” as the former four-weight champ is known, remains a big draw – one still big enough to headline a big card. Broner, attempting to get back to winning ways following his July 2017 points loss to Mikey Garcia, will face rough and tough Omar Figueroa at The Barclays Centre in Brooklyn on April 21.
April 21 is the night Britain’s Amir Khan will return to action in Liverpool, and for a while Bad Boy Broner was talked of as Khan’s “Homecoming” foe, and what a fun fight/promotion that one would have been (maybe still could be in the future). Instead, the 33-3(24) Broner gets the unbeaten, 27-0-1(19) former 135 pound lightweight title holder. The fight, a WBC eliminator, will go ahead at 140 and Broner has to know he must win this one or else.
Broner, when he’s got his head screwed on right, trains hard and is a formidable proposition for almost anybody. And if he can get past Figueroa, an action fighter who figures to set a hot pace on April 21, Broner will be close to getting somewhere close to where he once was. And Broner is talking that great fight/performance talk ahead of this one; stating how he will win this fight and then look to avenge his losses to Mikey and to another rugged and relentless warrior he fell victim to in Shawn Porter.
But first comes Figueroa, younger and fresher than Broner. Figueroa has already retired one former champion who was simply unable to cope with his aggression and sheer relentlessness, in an admittedly faded Robert Guerrero – who Omar stopped in just three one-sided sessions.
Can Figueroa see off Broner too, or will we see a fully focused and all-business Broner do his thing? On the same card, unbeaten upcoming star Gervonta Davies will see action against a TBA. Davies, who lost his IBF 130 pound belt on the scales before his last fight in August, will no doubt look to steal the show in New York.