By Ian S Palmer
Adrien Broner gets back into the ring this Friday, April 1st when he attempts to defend his WBA Super Lightweight Championship against Ashley Theophane of England at the DC Armory in Washington D.C. . Broner was recently named in a civil lawsuit and is apparently wanted by police for his alleged involvement in an armed robbery in his hometown of Cincinnati in January. However, the police can’t be looking too hard for him if this 12-round bout is still going ahead. The challenger Theophane is promoted by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and is now based out of Las Vegas. The fight is another Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) production and can be seen live in North America on Spike TV.
Broner was last in action back on October 3rd when he beat former world champ Khabib Allakhverdiev of Russia by a 12th-round stoppage for the vacant WBA title. The 26-year-old Broner’s now won world titles in four weight divisions and will enter the ring with a record of 31-2 along with 23 Kos while the 35-year-old Theophane is 39-6-1 with 11 Kos. He last fought in August when he beat Steve Upsher Chambers by a 10-round unanimous decision. Theophane is a former British Super Lightweight titleholder who’s won his last six fights, but they’ve been against relative unknowns.
Broner easily rubs people the wrong way with his egotistical and arrogant attitude and those fans couldn’t have been happier when Broner suffered his two defeats at the hands of Marcos Maidana of Argentina in 2013 and fellow American Shawn Porter in June of last year, who both beat him on points. Broner possesses enough talent to be an elite boxer, but his maturity level and work habits could both do with a lot of improvement. He keeps promising fans that he’s changed, but they’ll have to wait until Friday night to judge for themselves.
This is basically Broner’s fight to lose and he should have learned enough lessons in his two losses to realize what he needs to do against Theophane to be successful. The Briton is technically sound and knows what he’s doing inside the ring, but isn’t all that exciting to watch. He stands 5-feet-8-inches tall and has a solid chin, and will likely need it against Broner. There’s a good chance he can handle Broner’s best shots, but it’s unlikely he’ll land enough of his own to pull off an upset.
Broner may be the smaller fighter at just over 5-foot-6, but he has more speed and power under his belt as well as pro experience in big fights. He also owns a 68 per cent knockout ratio compared to Theophane’s 24 per cent. Broner has a slight reach advantage at 69.5 inches to 67 inches and has fought 180 rounds since turning pro back in 2008 while Theophane has gone 306 rounds since 2003. Theophane’s most recognizable opponents up to date have been Danny Garcia, Delvin Rodriguez and Pablo Cesar Cano. He lost to Garcia by 10-round split decision in 2010 and Cano beat him the same way four years later.
Prediction
Theophane has never been stopped in his six losses and can definitely take a punch. However, he needs to land his own shots to win this fight and it’s going to be hard to keep Broner off of him since the challenger possesses little in the way of power. Broner has a big age advantage as well as a couple of inches in reach and is also a harder hitter. Theophane will give it his best, but look for Broner to retain his title by decision or late stoppage.
