Broner: I’m going to prove Mikey Garcia wrong

By Allan Fox: Adrien “The Problem” Broner is not a happy camper at being counted out and overlooked by fans for his fight against Mikey Garcia on July 29. Broner says he’s a better fighter than what people think he is, and he intends on proving Garcia, the fans and the bettors all wrong in his fight on Showtime at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

(Photo credit: Scott Hirano/SHOWTIME)

Broner is well accomplished for someone as young as him. At 27, Broner has done a lot in the sport in winning 4 division world titles. But in each case, Broner hasn’t beaten the truly best fighters. You can say that Broner has won world titles against the weak links. He’s never beaten anyone near to the class of Mikey Garcia. That doesn’t mean that Broner can’t pull off an upset and win this fight, but he’s going to need to raise his game to the highest level to win this fight.

“This is going to be a life-changing moment for me,” said Broner in discussing his fight with Garcia to Brian Custer of showtime. “I’ll do what I got to do to get my victory. He’s not going to stand in front of me. Nobody do. Once they feel my power they change they mind.”

It’s easy to see why Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) is being overlooked in this fight. He’s failed in his only 2 tough fights in the last 4 years in losing to Shawn Porter and Marcos Maidana. The fans go by what you show them. Broner hasn’t been showing them much when he’s stepped it up against the top tier opposition. Now he’s going against the lightweight division’s best fighter in unbeaten Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs), who is heading towards superstardom unless Broner can stop his progress to the top of the sport.

“Mikey Garcia, he’s definitely someone I’m going to prove wrong and after the fight I can promise you he will say that I’m the best fighter he’s ever fought in his life,” said Broner .

If Broner wins this fight, he can take his career to the next level or go back to underachieving by facing lesser fighters. We haven’t seen much from Broner in the last 4 years. If he can beat Mikey and then use the win to take on the top guys like Terence Crawford and Manny Pacquiao and beat them too, it would be a huge comeback for Broner. Right now, Broner’s career is stuck in a stalled place. But if he beat Mikey Garcia, he’s on the express elevator to the top of the sport. Broner wants to become a PPV star. Beating Mikey Garcia is the right move for him to accomplish that.

Broner doesn’t think he’s going to get credit for beating Mikey. Broner figures that if he beats Mikey, they’ll say that he won because he had a size advantage over him.

“I know what’s going to happen. I’m going to f–k him up, I mess around and stop him,” said Broner. “They just going to go back to 35 like nothing happened, and you know what the boxing world going to do? They going to embrace him. And then they are going to make excuses like ‘oh he was naturally the bigger guy, he was naturally the faster guy, he had the most talent — he was supposed to do that.’ They going to finagle some way, and find some way to downplay my victory.”

Broner sounds paranoid. He’s looking way ahead towards a dim future if he beats Mikey. Broner will get a lot of credit if he beats Mikey Garcia. Sure, some boxing fans will say Broner won because of his size advantage. The casual boxing fans will give Broner credit. They won’t know that Broner or less moved up in weight to the welterweight division back in 2013. The fans will just see Broner beating a very good fighter in Mikey Garcia and they’ll surely give him credit for having done so.

Broner will deserve credit if he can beat Mikey, because he’s one of the best fighters in the sport. It’s going to take a special kind of performance from Broner to do that through. Right now, Mikey looks like the much better fighter of the two. The betters have Garcia a 5:1 favorite over Broner.

They can see what the boxing public is seeing. Mikey is working hard and fighting at a high level. Broner seems to have slipped a couple of notches and lost his motivation since his loss to Maidana. Broner was slipping before that loss. Broner didn’t look good in his win over Paulie Malignaggi in June 2013.

“Unless it’s a lucky punch, I don’t see how I’m going to lose,” said Mikey Garcia. “I’m a better fighter. I’ve got better timing, ring IQ. I can also punch, I can box, I can bang. People still haven’t even seen the best of me.”

Broner has enough to knockout Mikey without it being a lucky punch. The real question though is how long Broner can survive under the big shots that Mikey will be hitting him with. Broner has the punching power to give Mikey a great deal to think about when he’s in there. If Mikey cannot knock Broner out, he’s going to have to his chin down and his wits about him because he’s going to take a lot of punishment.

Mikey isn’t unhittable, as we saw in his recent fight against former WBC World featherweight champion Elio Rojas. Mikey was getting hit. But he was able to knock Rojas out in the 5th round in July 2016. That fight took place in the 140 lb. division. Rojas isn’t a light welterweight though. He’s a fighter that has spent most of his career at featherweight. Broner is bigger, and he’s been camping at 140 and 147 in the last 4 years. This is going to be a tough fight for Mikey if he can’t get Broner out of there early before he starts putting hands on him and walking him down. Broner will be coming forward looking to nail Mikey with his shots. Broner hits consistently hard with every punch he throws. He can do damage after a while from his solid blows. Mikey isn’t going to want to let Broner stay around if he can help it.

“I think this is going to be a life changing moment for me in boxing, and I’m not taking it for granted,” said Broner. “After the fight, I can promise you that he will say that I’m the best fighter he ever fought in his life,” said Broner.

There’s a chance that Mikey will say that. I think it’s pretty clear that Broner is the best fighter that Mikey has faced. I don’t see anyone on Mikey’s resume that Broner couldn’t beat. Broner would beat past Garia opponents like Dejan Zlaticanin, Roman Martinez, Juan Manuel Lopez, Jonathan Victor Barros, Bernabe Concepcion, Juan Carlos Burgos, Elio Rojas and Matt Remillard.

The one fighter on Garcia’s resume that Broner might lose to is Orlando Salido. Broner would have problems with Salido unless he was at his best. That would be a toss-up fight. Salido is a very good fighter. Broner would need to bring his A-game and use some of his boxing skills to try out-boxing Salido. He wouldn’t outslug that guy because he’s too at brawling.

Garcia will be moving up on weight to 140 pounds to fight Broner. That’s going to be a big move for Garcia, as he’s making a jump against a very good fighter. Garcia isn’t taking a tune-up to get used to the light welterweight division. That’s not good, but Garcia has enough talent to get the job done without needing a tune-up for the light welterweight division.