After months of speculation and trash talk, the highly anticipated Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana welterweight title showdown was made official, according to ESPN's Dan Rafael.
The fight that will be held on Dec. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nev., will mark the first time Broner will headline a pay-per-view card. He will be trying to make his own mark in the sport at the very arena where his idol, Floyd Mayweather Jr., has fought the biggest fights of his career.
Broner (27-0, 22 KOs) is a flashy young prospect who at times has looked great in the ring. But in his toughest test to date against Paulie Malignaggi early this year, Broner was less impressive, but still managed to win and capture a title in a third weight division.
To make the Malignaggi fight happen Broner moved up two weight divisions to make the 147-pound welterweight limit. This jump may have been tougher physically than Broner may have initially thought, and he may look more comfortable at the heavier weight in his second fight in the division.
Showtime must have felt the time is now for the 24-year-old Broner, as he has brought in solid numbers in both of his fights on the network earlier this year. Broner's bout against Gavin Reese in February brought in 1.4 million viewers, while the fight where he won his WBA title against Malignaggi in June pulled in a viewership of 1.3 million, per Yahoo! Sports.
In Mayweather's first PPV headlining bout, he faced the legendary Arturo Gatti in 2005 and drew in 365,000 PPV buys. Since everyone wants to compare the two fighters, Broner's first PPV appearance will be considered a failure if he doesn't at least draw in somewhere around that 365,000-buys mark.
With the stacked undercard that features the return of Victor Ortiz in his match with IBF junior middleweight champ Carlos Molina, Keith Thurman against Jesus Soto Karass and Alfredo Angulo facing off with Jorge Melendez, Broner will have some help selling the card.
Maidana (34-3, 31 KOs) will offer Broner a stiff test, as he has won by KO in 31 of his 34 victories and will be hoping to catch Broner in one of his infamous "hit me if you can" moments of cockiness in the ring.
Maidana possess victories over the likes of Ortiz, Josesito Lopez and DeMarcus Corley, to name a few, and will be looking to add the biggest name to his win column in Broner. In the biggest fights of his career, Maidana has been unable to net a win, losing to Amir Khan in 2010 and to Devon Alexander in 2012, both by unanimous decision.
On Dec. 14 the world will get a glimpse at whether Broner is ready to be boxing’s next big thing, or if he still has some convincing to do with the fans of the sport.
Read more Boxing news on BleacherReport.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment