Adrien Broner says he will be shooting for a knockout victory when he faces Omar Figueroa next month in the main event on Showtime on August 20th at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida.
Showtime hadn’t given up on ‘The Problem’ Broner despite his freefall from the high perch that he had a decade ago when he was riding high as one of the most popular fighters in boxing.
The best of times are over for Broner, wasted due to his lack of dedication to the sport, and he looks past his prime now. Each of Broner’s performances in the last five years suggests that he’s no longer capable of beating top-tier opposition without the help of controversial scoring.
Broner hasn’t scored a knockout in six years since his ninth-round stoppage win over then 35-year-old Ashley Theophane in 2016, and it’s pretty clear that AB lacks the power, speed & punch output to KO his opposition at 140 & 147.
The 32-year-old Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs) needs to focus on trying to get the win over former WBC lightweight champion Figueroa (28-2-1, 19 KOs) in any way possible because AB has looked faded since 2017.
“I’m going in there to try to stop Figueroa,” said Broner. “I’m going to take the fight to him and go ahead and get him out of there.
“What I expect from him is the same gruesome Figueroa that we always see. He’ll try to make it a rough fight. Every fighter is different, but I don’t think he’ll be hard to hit. So, I’ll see ya’ll on August 20.’’
The more likely outcome of this fight is Figueroa will outwork Broner, as each of his last five opponents has, and either get a win or wind up losing a controversial decision.
Broner isn’t capable of throwing enough punches to win a decision over a fighter like Figueroa, and this fighter isn’t even a contender at 140 or 147. AB is being matched against a second-tier fighter, yet he will likely lose this fight.
It’s fair to say that Broner deserved defeats in each of his last five fights, as he appeared to lose to all of these fighters:
- Jovanie Santiago – UD 12 win
- Manny Pacquiao – UD 12 loss
- Jessie Vargas – Draw 12
- Mikey Garcia – UD 12 loss
- Adrian Granados – SD 10 win
Broner will have been out of the ring for 18 months when he faces Figueroa on August 20th, and he’ll likely have a lot of ring rust.
AB looked poor in his last fight in February 2021, beating Jovanie Santiago by a highly questionable 12-round unanimous decision by the scores 116-111, 115-112, and 117-110. This writer had Santiago winning by a 117-110 score.
If, by chance, Broner does win, it’ll be interesting to see where he goes next.
With Broner fighting annually, we probably won’t see him back in the ring until mid to late 2023, and it’s hard to imagine him being matched against a contender or champion at 140 or 147. Maybe it won’t matter that Broner continues to face sub-level fighters.
