Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner (33-3-1-, 24 KOs) isn’t worried in the least about Manny Pacquiao’s superior hand speed ahead of their fight on January 19 on SHOWTIME PPV at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Broner, 29, says his timing will neutralize Pacquiao’s speed advantage on the night. Further, Broner isn’t worried about trying to match Pacquiao’s famous high volume work rate.
What Broner is hoping to do is catch Manny with a big shot while he’s coming forward the way Juan Manuel Marquez did in stopping him with a big right hand in the sixth round in 2012. The difference is that Marquez was powered up for that fight, and punching with incredible power. Broner hasn’t shown the same kind of power that Marquez possessed in 2012. Broner isn’t going to knockout Pacquiao with his slapping shots, and he doesn’t have the same kind of timing that Marquez possessed. It’s going to be a lot harder for Broner to catch Pacquiao with a big shot than it was for Marquez.
Broner feels that he’s only going to need a few well chosen punches to knock Pacquiao out cold on the night. Broner points out that Pacquiao has gone to sleep before when he’s been hit hard by a well timed punch, and he thinks he can do the something to him when they meet up in less than two weeks.
As of this moment, Broner is the underdog against the 40-year-old Pacquiao, and there are very few boxing fans that are giving him any chance short of a well placed punch to the head of the Filipino superstar or a catastrophic injury. It’s just so unlikely to happen that fans are already plotting Pacquiao’s next fight after the January 19th fight against Adrien. Even Pacquiao is planning on his next fight in targeting the winner of the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Mikey Garcia fight. Pacquiao obviously knows that Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) is going to be the likely winner of that fight, so he’s clearly aiming high in wanting to fight him. The alternatives for Manny aren’t that great. There’s no real fan interest from the boxing public in seeing Pacquiao fight his old sparring partner in Shawn Porter. Likewise, Keith “One Time’ Thurman is just too undependable for
I’m going to be ready for anything Pacquiao brings to the table, and I will be victorious,” Broner said to Fighthype. “I know I’m going to have to make my adjustments and I’ll be victorious. I never fought a guy like Pacquiao. I just need to make my adjustments, and do what I got to do to get a victory,” Broner said.
Pacquiao, 40, has made it pretty clear that he plans on going after Broner in looking for a knockout. Since Pacquiao has never been a one-punch knockout type of guy, he’s likely going to be trying to overwhelm Broner with his high volume punch attack that he normally does in his fights. That means if Broner chooses to be stationary against the ropes like he sometimes does in his fights, he’s going to get hit a lot by Manny. Pacquiao is capable of throwing 1000 punches per 12 round fight. If Broner on the receiving end of a 1,000 shots from Pacquiao, he’s going to be in for a miserable evening. This could be far worse for Broner than his 12 round decision loss to Marcos Maidana in 2013. Broner was knocked down twice by Maidana, and punished the entire fight. Although Broner hurt Maidana after hitting him after the bell sounded to end the 11th round, he wasn’t able to take advantage of that in the 12th. Maidana continued to get the better of him to win a one-sided decision.
“Timing beats speed, and everybody knows I got great timing,” Broner said. “Timing beats everything, and this is just a good time for Adrien Broner and Pacquiao to fight. I’m ready physically, mentally and emotionally. I’m ready to go in there and let it all hang out. In a fight like this, it’s proven that you don’t have to throw a lot of punches to beat Manny Pacquiao. I may only have to throw one, and that mother-f—-r will go to sleep. He been asleep before,” Broner said.
Pacquiao has been knocked out three times in his 24-year pro career in defeats at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez, Rustico Torrecampo and Boonsai Sangsurat. With a career as long as Pacquiao’s, it’s not surprising that he’s been stopped several times. If Broner had fought 24 years, the chances are high that he’d get knocked two of three times as well. Broner has only fought one big knockout puncher during his career against Marcos Maidana, and he was lucky not to be stopped in that fight. Broner was pummeled by Maidana from start to finish in that fight. Broner thought he could fight Maidana by covering up on the ropes. That turned out to be a big mistake for Broner, as Maidana teed off on him in every round of the fight. It was a pure mismatch from the word go. The only reason Broner wasn’t knocked out in that fight was his strong punch resistance. He was able to take everything Maidana could dish out. The judges weren’t going to give Broner the win for him being courageous though in taking a shellacking.
“I think the most important part of beating Manny Pacquiao is throwing punches at the right time,” Broner said. “I don’t care if it comes by a knockout or a decision. A win is a win. For sure, fact. Manny hasn’t been punched by me yet. We shall see on January 19th,” Broner said.
Broner seems to be acting a lot more humble for this fight than he normally is in the build up for his fights. The only thing you can think of to explain Broner’s new humble approach to the fight is he knows he’s up against it in facing a guy that has a great chance of beating him in Pacquiao. Broner would look bad if he were to be cocky the entire time, and then ends up losing by knockout. By acting modest now, Broner is saving himself a lot of criticism afterwards by boxing fans.
This fight will come down to which of the two are willing to let their hands go more. What we’ve been seeing from Broner lately in his last two fights against Jessie Vargas and Mikey Garcia is a fighter who is afraid to throw punches in the first half of his fights. Broner gave the fights away to Mikey and Vargas by not throwing punches in rounds 1 through 6. For Broner to have a shot at beating Pacquiao, he’s got to stand and trade with him from the moment the fight starts. Can Broner do that? Physically he can, but mentally he probably can’t do it, because he’ll be too afraid.
Broner is not the same fighter since he moved up from his best weight of 130 to 147. He’s not the same guy. Although Broner had success at 135, 140 and 147, his best weight by far was when he was fighting at super featherweight at 130. That was the ideal weight for Broner. Once he moved out of that division, it was the beginning of the end for Broner as far as him being the dominating fighter that he once was.
There’s always a chance that Broner could come out looking like the fighter that he was many eons ago, but it’s going to hard for him to do that. The welterweight division isn’t Adrien’s natural weight class, and he’s fighting a guy with much better hand speed, foot speed and power in Pacquiao. Moreover, Pacquiao has the experience advantage as well, and that’s going to put Broner in a position where he’s going to need to come up with the perfect game plan for him to win. Broner’s fighting style is rather simplistic. He tends to fight in a stationary style that is a perfect for Pacquiao to deal with.