Broner vs. Garcia: $500K weight penalty for fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: Adrien “The Problem” Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) will need to cough up a substantial part of his purse for his fight against Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) on July 29 if he comes in over the 140 pound weight limit for their fight on Showtime Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

There’s reportedly a $500,000 per pound weight penalty written into the contact for the Broner-Garcia fight that can potentially effect either fighter if they come in over the 140-lb. weight limit. This obviously is something that can hurt Broner more than Garcia, as he’s failed to make 140 lb. weight in his last 2 fights.

Broner likely would have made the weight for both of those fights if he was motivated enough to. They weren’t big fight. It was Broner fighting Ashley Theophane and Adrian Granados. Those were both guys that Broner had a talent advantage over. It’s a different story for Broner’s fight against Garcia. He’s now the underdog, and there’s a real danger that he could lose by a knockout. Broner has never been knocked out before. A knockout loss right now might do a lot of damage to his career, which has gone downhill since his loss to Marcos Maidana 4 years ago in 2013.

It shouldn’t be a big deal for Broner to make the weight. It’s not as if he’s being asked to go down to 130 or 135. The weight for the Mikey Garcia fight is a doable one for Broner. That’s not the real question. The real question is whether Broner has the chin and the talent to beat Mikey.

If Broner can handle Mikey’s punching power, then he’s got a good chance of wearing him down and knocking him out. Mikey hasn’t faced the kind of puncher that Broner is during his career. Mikey’s toughest fight was against Orlando Salido, and he got out of that fight in the 8th round after suffering a broken nose. Salido was coming on and Mikey was starting to lose power on his shots. Mikey definitely looked worried.

“Everybody be like, ‘Is he going to make weight?’ The weight’s not a problem,” said Broner via Ringtv.com. “You know, I haven’t made weight lately because for what? They going to pay me the same if I fight at ’44? Then yeah, I’m going to fight at ’44. And then everybody be making a big deal about it when, on paper, it says ’44 and I make ’44, and they’re like, ‘Oh, he’s overweight.’ Like], I made weight. Look at the paper.”

Broner was beaten by Maidana and Shawn Porter. The loss to Porter came in 2015 in losing a 12 round decision. Broner didn’t even appear to try to win until the 12th round when he dropped Porter after attacking him hard. He put Porter down with a left hook to the head.

In hindsight, if Broner had fought aggressively for the full 12 rounds, he probably would have knocked Porter out. It just looked like Broner didn’t have the self-confidence to attack Porter in the way that he needed to for him to get the win. The power and the talent were there for Broner to win, but he didn’t seem to believe in himself to use his tools and talent. If Broner fights passively against Mikey, he’ll lose the fight badly. Broner’s loss to Maidana might have taken his confidence from him.

Broner was very lucky to get the win over Adrian Granados earlier this year in winning a 10 round split decision. The fight was supposed to have been a 12 round affair at 140 lbs, according to Granados. Everything was changed. The fight was changed to 10 rounds, and the weight went up to 147, which favored Broner.

Even with those things in his favor, Broner still appeared to lose the fight. The judges gave him a split decision, but a lot of people in the boxing world saw Granados winning the fight. That’s not the type of performance that you like to see Broner having before fighting a guy like Mikey Garcia. This is a tougher fight for Broner, and it he’ll lose if he fights at the same level as he did with Granados. Broner might have lacked the motivation for his last two contests for him to fight at a level needed for him to make the fights easier.

Broner fought at 140 in winning the vacant WBA World light welterweight title in beating Khabib Allakhverdiev two years ago in 2015. Broner won that fight by nailing an over-matched Allakhverdiev with pot shots all night long. Unfortunately for Broner, he lost the WBA belt after failing to make weight against Mayweather Promotions fighter Theophane, who arguably didn’t deserve a world title shot in the first place given his resume.

“Now I got a reason to make 140, you know? Because we ain’t about to pay the man to put these hands on,” Broner said. “They talking about giving up half-a-million if I don’t make weight. Y’all ain’t think I’m going to make weight? I ain’t got a dollar to give to nobody right now.”

It’s been a while since Broner looked really good in the ring. He was impressive against John Molina Jr. a couple of years ago in 2015. Molina looked mentally not willing to put up a fight. Never the less, Broner looked good in dominating Molina in a 12 round win.

Broner likely can afford to miss weight and still be fine. Granted, his purse will be eaten away if he comes in 2 or 3 pounds over the limit, but he’ll likely increase his chances of winning. If the victory is more important than the money that Broner gets for the fight, then it might not be a bad thing if he fails to make the 140 pound limit.

A win for Broner over Garcia would be huge for his boxing career. It would lead to a rematch, and there’s no telling if that would be a PPV fight on Showtime. Broner could take his stalled career to the next level if he beats Mikey. Missing weight might not be too bad of a thing if it helps Broner get the win. Sometimes you got to look at things from a different perspective. There’s a lot to gain for Broner in this fight. To become a PPV star, Broner needs to take Mikey’s scalp and use the win to bigger fights in the 140 and 147 pound division. It should help Broner’s confidence if he defeats Mikey and exposes him.

“I think this will be one of the best performances of my career and I think this will take me to the superstardom, where I need to be,” said Broner.

Mikey hits hard, but he seems to lose his power as the rounds go. He’s not the same fighter in the second half of his fights compared to in the first. Mikey got away with a lot of pushing off on Salido in their fight in 2013. The referee working the Garcia-Salido fight Benjy Esteves Jr. should have penalized Mikey for holding his left arm far out in front of him and using it to push Salido to keep him from working on the inside. That was cheating and Mikey got away with it due to the referee choosing not to step in to stop that tactic. I was surprised that Mikey got away with that for the entire fight. Salido was complaining about that afterwards.