Results: Adrien Broner beats Adrian Granados

By Jeff Sorby - 02/19/2017 - Comments

Adrian Granados (18-5-2, 11 KOs) found out the hard way how hard it is to beat Adrien “The Problem” Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) in his own hometown on Saturday night in losing to him by a 10 round split decision at the Cintas Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. Broner reportedly wanted the fight to be a 10 round bout rather than a 12 rounder.

(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME)

As it turns out, that decision may have saved him from losing the fight, as the judges scored the fight of 97-93, 96-94 for the very lucky Broner and 97-93 for Granados. The 97-93 score for Granados looked like a fair on in this writer’s opinion. Broner did not do enough to prove that he was the better fighter tonight. Indeed, Broner was out-landed and out-punched by approximately a 2-1 score from what I saw. Showtime Championship Boxing had their own punch stats, but I saw Granados landing the majority of the shots and doing the better work in almost every round of the fight.

Broner used the same stalling punch minimizing tactics that he used in his loss to Shawn Porter in 2015. Broner was holding Granados repeatedly in the 10 round fight to keep him from throwing punches. At the same time, Broner was getting hit a great deal, and not landing much in return. One reason why Broner couldn’t throw his punches was because he was too busy getting hit.

Broner complained of a hand injury after the fight, remarking that the injury happened in round 1. It sounded like Broner making an excuse. The boxing fans didn’t seem to buy Broner’s claims of a hand injury, because they booed him loudly when he was talking about the injury. In hindsight, it might have been better for Broner to keep quiet when he’s got an injury unless it’s a fight in which he wins easily.

Tonight wasn’t that type of fight. Broner didn’t appear to dominate, let alone win. It was a fight that looked more like an A-side fighter getting a controversial victory over a visiting B-side fighter with 4 losses on his record coming into the fight. There were some boxing fans who felt that it would be hard for Granados to win a decision over Broner in his own hometown. As it turns, they were right. Granados lost a fight that he could have perhaps should have won.

Granados asked Broner after the fight if he would give a rematch in his own hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Broner soundly rejected the idea of fighting Granados again in his hometown. Broner mentioned something about him being a businessman. This obviously was code for ‘I’m not interested in fighting you again.’