“You Can Act Like A Man”: Don Vito Corleone to Adrien Broner!
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By Jesse “New School” Wright
When you declare yourself the second coming of this generations pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather JR., it might be a sure bet that you’re setting yourself up for failure. When you try to emulate the guy in and out of the ring, you also run the risk of being deemed a second rate knock off. That is the wrong foot that Adrien “The Problem” Broner, 31-2 2KOs got off on to begin his career. He gets negative press, he’s cocky and he even fights out of the Philly shell defensive stance as his role model. So what’s the problem? There are few that we will take a look at, but the biggest one is that this guy is actually a phenomenal fighter who has stopped himself from being great.
When you achieve three-division world championship success by the age of 23, it’s almost impossible not to develop an ego. When the most narcissistic fighter in the sport takes you under his wing and reinforces that through process, it’s impossible not to develop an inflated ego. The problem starts with Broner’s effort to mimic Mayweather JR. For starters, Broner cannot talk trash like Floyd. When Floyd talks trash, there is a reason for it. Love him or hate him, he always maintains a professional demeanor when talking trash about other fighters. When Floyd speaks, it is always with a bigger purpose. Conversely, Broner seems to regularly cross the line of making statements in bad taste that come across as downright offensive. It’s one thing to draw heat and sell tickets, that is understandable. It’s another thing to leave fans in disgust and disdain. Hopefully for his sake, this is something that he will grow out of as he matures and grows in to his own man.
The out of ring antics can be forgiven. No fighter should be judged for what he does or says out of the ring before being judged for what he does between the ropes. This is where Broner has a real problem. Where Mayweather is obsessively driven in his prefight preparation and very serious in the ring, Broner lacks the discipline to compose himself as a professional. It’s as if he doesn’t realize how finite his overall career actually is. If he put as much effort in to out boxing Marcos Maidana as he did trying to hump him he might have actually won. If that wasn’t enough to turn a good fight into a sideshow, he then went ahead and threw an over the top tantrum. In front of the whole world, Broner emotionally dove to the mat and pounded away at the canvas after the referee did not acknowledge a headbutt by Maidana. That’s not how you build a “bad boy” image. That’s how you humiliate yourself. Not only is it shameful, but it’s causing him to have bad matches.
Hopefully, one of these days, Broner will have a moment a self realization and start conducting himself like a real fighter. If he wants to dance, act stupid, mouth of to Paulie Malignaggi, that’s great, don’t do it in the ring. Nobody’s paying to see a stand up act. It’s not fun to watch and it’s a disgrace to the sport. In a perfect world, Broner can get over his self image problems and show the world he is for real. If he can get focused, there is no question he would become something special. For the sake of all the potential great fights at junior welter weight I hope that it happens. In the most appropriate fashion, I’ll leave Broner with the same question Detective Allen Gamble asked Terry Hoitz in “The Other Guys” after he saw one too many immature outbursts: “Are you a big man! You wake up in the morning and say hey look I’m wearing my big boy pants!? I can say big loud things! I can be demonstrative! We don’t do that! Is this how you conduct yourself?!”
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