Adrien Broner vs. Mikey Garcia catch-weight fight update

Boxingnews24.com

By Jim Dower: Former 4 division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner and WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia have had preliminary discussions for a catch weight fight in the summer, according to Dan Rafael. However, the fight is far from a done deal at this point. It’s been basic starting discussions and nothing has been completed at this point.

There isn’t a date or a venue for the fight as of yet. It’s definitely a great fight, says Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza. As of now, Broner and Mikey don’t have fights scheduled. If the two of them could face each other in the summer, it would be a big fight that would interest the boxing world.

There was a report of the Broner-Mikey Garcia fight taking place on July 29 on Showtime Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Espinoza says that’s not happening. Broner vs. Garcia is not happening on July 29. Broner, 27, could use a big fight right now to help reset his boxing career, which has never recovered since his defeat at the hands of Marcos Maidana. Broner has struggled ever since that loss, and rarely has he looked good.

The only fight that Broner has shined in over the last 4 years was his match 2 years ago against John Molina Jr. in March 2015. You can argue the only reason Broner looked good in that fight was because Molina looked too timid to throw punches for 12 rounds. Molina Jr. looked petrified to let his hand go, and made the fight an easy one for Broner for that reason alone.

“The fight isn’t made, much less a venue determined. I wish it were true. But it’s not,” Espinoza said to ESPN.com.

Broner recently beat light welterweight contender Adrian Granados by a 10 round split decision three months ago in February. Many in the boxing world thought Granados should have won that fight with ease. Broner, the more popular fighter of the two, was given the nod by 2 of the judges. Recently Broner was jailed in Kentucky for a warrant out on him stemming from an incident 3 years ago in 2014. Broner has not looked particularly sharp in his last three fights in beating Granados, Ashley Theophane and Khabib Allakhverdiev.

Broner hasn’t been fighting the better contenders in the light welterweight division like Kiryl Relkh and Rances Barthlelemy. That doesn’t mean that Broner couldn’t beat them, but it’s not good news that Broner is winning controversial decisions over guys like Granados. Broner said he hurt his hand early in the fight, but he didn’t look good even in the first two rounds. Granados was getting the better of Broner. If Broner’s poor performance was due to a hand injury, then he shouldn’t have been getting outworked and out-hustled by Granados right off the bat in the fight.

Mikey Garcia is in the better place with his career than Broner. Garcia might be the best fighter in the lightweight division right now, which isn’t saying a whole lot because the division lacks talent. Mikey looked sensational recently in knocking out Dejan Zlaticanin to win the WBC lightweight title. Garcia’s only chance for a nice payday fight in the lightweight division is when Vasyl Lomachenko moves up to the division and takes him on.

Lomachenko has spoken of wanting to fight Garcia, but he’s still not made the move to fight in the lightweight division. Instead of moving up to lightweight, Lomachenko is staying down at super featherweight to defend his World Boxing Organization belt against Orlando Salido in a rematch. Lomachenko might move up to lightweight in 2018, but he would likely look to fight one or two tune-ups before taking a dangerous fight against Garcia.

”’It’s definitely not made yet and there is no venue determined. But we’ve got two guys who both need fights and it would be great if they can fight each other. But there are a lot of issues — what’s the money, what is the weight?” said Espinoza.

The money split might be a big problem in making the Broner-Garcia fight. If Broner insists that he should be the A-side and get the lion’s share of the money, then it could derail the Garcia fight. Garcia is fighting at a much higher level with his career in the lightweight division than Broner is at welterweight. Broner is pretty floundering a 147. He doesn’t have the power or the speed to fight at a high level in this weight class.

Deciding the weight for the Broner-Garcia fight will also be a huge problem. Broner doesn’t seem to be able to make 140 any longer. Even a catch-weight at 142 would be a difficult task for Broner. He seems to be only capable of fighting at the full weight for the welterweight division. If they do agree to fighting at a catch-weight below 147, then a weight penalty might be needed from Team Mikey in order to make sure that Broner doesn’t blow off the catch-weight and wind up weighing in at 147.

That’s the problem. I don’t think Broner would ever agree to a weight penalty. That would put Mikey in a tough position of potentially fighting a muich heavier guy than himself. I’m sure Mikey can still do it, as he’s got fast hands, great boxing skills and punching power that would carry up to welterweight

If a fight with Mikey is going to take place in the summer, Broner would need to get in the gym and work out quickly to take the weight off that he’s put on since his last fight in February.

There was talk not long ago of a fight between Broner and Ricky Burns. However, the match never materialized for some reason and Burns recently lost his WBA light welterweight title to Julius Indongo. That was a missed opportunity for Broner, because he would have had an excellent chance of beating Burns. I don’t know if Broner could beat someone like Indongo. He doesn’t have anything to offer him. WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford is interested in the fight with Indongo, and he’ll likely get it.