What Is Adrien Broner Doing?
By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White
When you see someone who’s a former world champion in four weight divisions, you tend to immediately have respect for that person as a fighter and as a human being…
That’s because winning a world title does not generally come by easily and there is an unparalleled amount of hard work, sacrifice, blood, sweat and tears that go into winning that strap and having it sit proudly over your shoulder.
Although, when you realise that this former four-weight world champion is in fact, Adrien Broner, the level of respect you feel immediately slumps and you begin to question how someone who has achieved so much can be such a bad representative of the sport that you love, respect and admire.
The Villain
Broner who is known as “The Problem” has evolved into a full-blown villain in the sport, thanks to his questionable sportsmanship and his absolutely disgraceful comments which he has made on several occasions in the immediate post-fight interviews.
It is common knowledge within the boxing world that Adrien Broner has been in some difficult situations outside of the ring, most of all within his own head and his own mind. There’s no shame in that, but it seems to me that in the long run, his behavior is so self-destructive that after his professional career is over, he may struggle to cope.
In my opinion, Broner seems to be a fighter who’s trying to live up to and recreate the feats of Floyd Mayweather, JR.- having previously labelled him as his ‘big bro’ – but Broner has far too big of a detrimental ego to do so; neither does he have the ability to adapt like Mayweather, JR. could.
Respect
As a kid, I was always taught to be polite and respectful, even when you may not agree with someone, however, it would appear that Broner was not, particularly due to remarks and comments in his most recent post-fight interview.
If you’ve not seen or heard about it, Broner basically disrespected the Mexican fans in attendance and insulted Jim Gray – saying something about cataracts and his choice of the suit he was wearing (pretty pathetic insults to be hurling at an innocent person doing their job?).
Broner is a talented athlete and a very good fighter, however, I cannot help but feel that his self-inflated ego and refusal to quieten his mind has prevented him for being what he could be if he really got all of that under control. He’s always come up short against the very elite fighters such as, Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter and Marcos Maidana – which I put down to his lack of mental discipline and control.
It’s easy for me to sit here and write all this, as I’m not the person under those lights in packed out arena’s, but as an amateur kickboxer myself, I know how important the right mindset is going into a contest.
With this in mind, I feel that if Broner could observe himself and realize how his words and actions are damaging his legacy, then maybe he could and would want to make the necessary adjustments to become the best fighter he’s capable of becoming, whilst also becoming a better ambassador and representative of the sport!
Although confidence is a must in boxing, arrogance and blatant disrespect are not and it does no favors for the sport.
It’s all well and good talking about how great you are and how much money you’re making and how easy it is to attract people of the opposite sex, but let’s put all of that aside and focus on the real reason everybody has tuned in…