Recently Adrien Broner lost a convincing unanimous points decision to Manny Pacquiao in their welterweight title bout last month in Las Vegas.
After the fight many pointed to Broner not being at the top level of boxing anymore and expressed dismay at his continual gaining of large fights despite not performing in the ring and outside of the ring being less than respectful (to put it mildly).
Broner is perhaps following the montage of being the ‘heel’ or ‘bad boy’ character in boxing in that people will tune in just to see him lose and as a consequence he gets more people to buy his fights.
A move once made by former Broner friend Floyd Mayweather but the key difference with the latter backing up his trash talk in the ring with standout performances over the years.
Indeed, commentator and respected trainer Teddy Altas speaking on his new podcast is totally puzzled by how Broner continues to be involved in big fights:
“It’s probably hard for good, reasonable people out there to understand how he continues to get chances to make money. When there is so many other fighters out there that don’t do these things that you went through the laundry list of, bad things not good things, not good for the sport, not good for our society, not good for anybody. There is so many other fighters out there that could fit in there that could get in there to make money and he continues to be put back in that position. Even though he’s lost three fights when every time he’s stepped up and moved up in class.”
He added:
“But he stays there. He stays at that elite level. That elite place to continue to get those fights. Listen, I think I can understand that some of it sells but have we got that bad as a society that we think we need that to sell and we can’t sell something else?”