The Problem

by Joe Calvey
jcalvey@aol.com


He may think he is The Greatest, and he could be called The Lip, he is definitely THE PROBLEM.

Adrein "The Problem" Broner is the brashest, loudest, silliest grill wearing, gold chain draped boxing world champion to come along in quite awhile. He doesn’t instill the raw fear in his opponents the way Iron Mike Tyson once did though he has an 81% knockout percentage. 

Broner holds two world championship belts and an appetite for the good life. It’s that appetite that eventually might undo his plans. He has had difficulty making the contracted weight before a recent fight. So December 14th at the Alamodome when he faces a quiet Argentinean that absolutely destroys his opponents with his fists Broner will need to once again back up his big mouth and not with tacos and gorditas. 

Golden Boy Promotions brings a four championship fight night to town along with local promoters Jesse James Leija and Mike Battah. Having one world championship fight is great, having two is twice as good but having four in the same building on the same night? Incredible. Promoters quickly sold over $500,000 in tickets within hours of announcing Broner’s arrival and they expect 30,000 fight fans to arrive at the gate.

Profane in his pre-fight press conference prediction of knocking Marcos Maidana out Broner was less forthcoming about having a home made sex tape making the rounds on the Internet. Likely he will not be making any promotional appearances with the squeaky clean San Antonio Spurs to promote this event. It is also unknown if one of the women he was taped ‘indelicato’ with was the former girlfriend of his last opponent, Paulie Malanaggi. During the Showtime post fight interview following their bout Broner announced he was leaving town with her which caused Malanaggi to go snot spewing crazy. Broner knows how to push buttons.

Love him or hate him Broner does have skills inside the ring and a bent promotional streak as well. After knocking out Gavin Rees while veteran sportscaster Jim Grey was trying to conduct a serious interview with him Broner staged a mock engagement plea to his … hair brush. The leggy young lady in front of a kneeling Broner was reduced to a mere prop and Grey an unwitting accomplice.

Broner has 22 knock outs in 27 fights with no losses and two WBA world championship belts, one in the lightweight division and one in the welterweight division. Broner was informed that following this fight he has to decide which division he is going to leave. Marcos Maidana is determined to make it an easy decision.

Broner and Maidana will be fighting for the welterweight title. With his 31 knockouts in his 37 fights Maidana could be the problem Broner can not solve since he is clearly the most powerful fighter Broner has ever squared off against. In his three losses Maidana went the distance in each of them and has faced far better and more competitive fighters than Broner.

Maidana has questioned whether or not Broner has the "guts" to stand toe to toe and exchange punches or if Maidana will be forced to "chase" him. Broner in deference to the holiday season predicted "lighting him up like a Christmas tree".

As if this fight alone were not worth the price of admission considering the ticket prices start at $10 there will be three other world championship fights. Knockout artist Keith "One Time" Thurman 21-0 with 19 knockouts will face Jesus Soto-Karas 28-8 with 18 knockouts who resurrected his career with a knockout of former world champion Andre Berto in San Antonio this past July. This fight will feature two men who will stand toe to toe and drop bombs until one of them goes down. That they are fighting for the WBA interim World Welterweight title is immaterial. After all what is a interim title when the champion, Broner, is fighting elsewhere on the card anyhow.

You may not have heard of Beibut Shumenov but if you are in the building you may well hear the crack of his punches. Shumenov is the IBA and the WBA reigning world light heavyweight champion. He got to the top of those organizations rather quickly as this will be only his 15th professional fight. He has 13 wins, 8 knockouts and 1 loss. His challenger Tamas Kovacs is undefeated with 23 wins 14 by knockout is poised enough to take the belts.

 Extremely popular Leo Santa Cruz 25-0 with 15 knockouts will defend his WBC Super Bantamweight tile against Cesar Seda 25-1 with 17 knockouts.
Cruz is one of those few successful ultra low weight fighters (121 lbs.) that enjoys widespread popularity among boxing fans because of his exciting style of boxing with power. Seda whose only loss came on points in Argentina is clearly well matched to face Santa Cruz.

Without a doubt the boxing world has made San Antonio a destination. CEO of Golden Boy Promotions calls San Antonio the 4th best choice for hosting a big title fight. Las Vegas, New York and anywhere in Southern California would be the logical places ahead of San Antonio however with The Problem coming to fight in San Antonio I’m not sure being fourth place on this list is much of a problem.