Broner vs. Garcia at Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, NY

By Jeff Aranow: To no great surprise, the fight between former 4 division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) and the current WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) will be taking place next month on July 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Having the Broner-Garcia fight take place in New York will take advantage of Broner’s large fan base in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is not too terribly far away.

Broner has a lot to prove in this fight, as his career is not what it once was 5 years ago before he lost to Marcos Maidana. It’s Mikey who is becoming a star. He just needs some more fights under his belt against the bigger names for him to take his career to the next level. Mikey has only fought twice since returning from a long 2 ½ year layoff from boxing in 2016.

Broner-Garcia will be shown on Showtime Championship Boxing on July 29. The fight will be presented by Premier Boxing Champions. This is a good crossroads fight for Broner. If he loses, then he might need to think about some other line of work. If Mikey wins, he’s on his way to stardom.

Broner is trying to keep his career alive after a loss to Shawn Porter and a controversial win over Adrian Granados. Broner cannot afford to get beaten again if he wants to continue to be one of the more popular fighters in the 140 and 147 pound divisions. It seems unlikely that Broner is going to be able to stay around at the top for too much longer no matter which of those 2 divisions he calls his home.

There are too many good fighters at light welterweight and welterweight for Broner o do well. Moreover, Broner doesn’t appear to be able to make the weight for the 140 pound division. Broner has failed twice in a row to make the 140lb limit in fights against Adrian Granados and Asthley Theophane. While it seems possible that Broner will make weight for the Mikey Garcia fight, we’re going to have to see if he can make the weight.

Just because Broner ‘s weight is hovering at 155 right now doesn’t mean he’s going to be able to take the weight off to make the 140 lb. limit for the fight. If Broner can’t make the weight for this fight, then he really needs to quit the light welterweight division and stay at 147 for better or for worse. I’d say for the worst because Broner has not looked good in the 3 fights that he’s had in fighting at 147. Broner has only fought two good welterweights during his career in Shawn Porter and Marcos Maidana, and he looked really bad in both of those fights.

The significance of having the fight in New York is not lost on anyone that is a fan of Broner. This is a venue that plays into Broner’s hand entirely. The fans will be Broner’s fans, and it’s going to be tough on the 30-year-old Mikey. However, that still doesn’t mean that Broner will win the fight. He’s going to need to keep from ending up like the last 2 opponents that Milkey has beaten in his comeback. Mikey was able to knockout the always tough Dejan Zlaticanin and Elio Rojas. Those fighters are known for having good chins, but Mikey wiped them out quickly. Broner has never been knocked before during his 9-year pro career, but he also has never fought anyone like Mikey.

Broner was able to edge his last opponent Adrian Granados thanks to the pro-Broner crowd on February 18 in his hometown of Cincinnati. Broner won the fight by a 10 round split decision, but it looked in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans that Granados had done enough to deserve the win. The only thing you can say to try and explain the scoring by the 2 judges that gave Broner the win was perhaps they were unconsciously influence by the fan applause for Broner, because it looked as if Granados had done enough to rate the win.

4 years ago, Broner won a questionable 12 round split decision victory over WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi on June 2, 2013. Broner won by the scores 115-113, 117-111 for Broner, and 115-113 for Malignaggi. Boxing News 24 scored the fight 115-113 for Malignaggi. He appeared to do more than enough to deserve the win over Broner, who struggled with the high work rate by Malignaggi. I wouldn’t the win by Broner a ‘great victory. I would call it a very ‘lucky victory.’ What was disappointing is Broner opted not to fight a rematch with Malignaggi to clear up the controversy. In hindsight, that would have been the smart thing for Broner to do, because it would have given him a better chance to win and show the boxing public that he was the better fighter of the two instead of just the guy that was given a gift decision. What Broner did instead of fighting Malignaggi again was take a fight against the bigger and stronger Marcos Maidana, which he promptly lost by a 1 round unanimous decision on December 14, 2013. The loss for Broner took a lot of the momentum away from Broner’s career. He hasn’t looked the same since then. Whether that was because the beating he took from Maidana or maybe because he was never that good to begin with was unclear. Whatever the case, Broner clearly doesn’t belong at 147, and he might not even belong at 140 either.

Mikey Garcia recently destroyed Elio Rojas in 5 rounds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Mikey knocked Rojas down 4 times in the fight in stopping him 2 times in the 3rd and 5th rounds. Mikey’s performance was a lot better than Broner’s win over Malignaggi. Of course, Mikey has more to work with than Broner, as he’s a much better puncher at lightweight than Broner is at 140 or 147. That’s not to say that Broner is a bad puncher. He can punch a little with his left hand when he lands just right, but he doesn’t have the same one-punch power that Mikey Garcia possesses.

Broner has been beaten only 2 times during his career, but he’s also not fought a lot of good opponents. His domination in the super featherweight and lightweight divisions came against guys that are nowhere near as good as the top fighters that exist in the upper ranks of those divisions today.

Mikey has got to be viewed as the favorite to win the fight against Broner. Mikey is fighting at a much higher level, and he’s going to be moving up in weight to fight at 140. It won’t be hard for Mikey to make the weight like it will be for Broner, who might not even make the weight. We’ll have to see about that.