HOLES IN BRONERS GAME EXPOSED!
Las Vegas, NV- In a dramatic upset and one-sided rout, Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KOs) was all over WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KOs) from the opening bell to defeat him by a unanimous decision, live from the Alamodome on Showtime from San Antonio, Texas.
Marcos Maidana hands Broner his first defeat
Maidana, a perceived crude slugger out of Argentina, training out of Oxnard, CA under the tutelage of esteemed trainer Robert Garcia, has somewhat refined his game. While offensively he was still unleashing the wide hooks and overhand rights that are his custom, defensively he kept his hands tight and showed some head movement. He stunned the always cocky and brash Broner in round one, dropped him in round two and eight and basically beat him to the punch throughout the fight, and landed the harder blows in the process. Scores were 115-110, 117-109, 115-109 all for the new WBA 147lb champion Maidana.
FLOYD A DIAMOND, BRONER THE CUBIC ZIRCONIA
Broner a Cincinnati, Ohio native, who many were prematurely crowing the future “PPV star” and “Pound for Pound king”, was percieved to be Floyd Mayweather’s heir apparent. His arrogant and flashy persona mimicked that of Floyd, and inside the ring he emulated Floyd’s shoulder roll defensive style. However thats where the similarities ended. One of Mayweather’s best assets are his fast feet which help get out of harms way of his opponents attacks. Herein lies the flaw; Broner fights flatfooted. He uses the shoulder roll, but when his opponent gets off first, he goes into a shell. Maidana was able to execute chopping right hands over and over throughout the fight, and Broner would fail to answer.
FIGHTING A WEIGHT CLASS OR TWO TOO BIG?
It also appears that although the “Problem” is a decent puncher at welterweight, he is not a big enough puncher to be effective, especially when you consider his low punch output. Broner will have to go back to the drawing board and decide if he will continue to campaign at welterweight. The Cincinnati native still holds the WBC lightweight (135 lb.) title. It remains to be seen if he can actually get his still growing (and snacking) 24 year-old body down to 135 again.
REFEREE LAURENCE COLE SHOULD FIND OTHER WORK!
What was somewhat overshadowed by what was an extremely entertaining contest was the bias refereeing of one of boxing’s worst in Lawrence Cole. What was obvious was the overall favoritism towards Broner, the house fighter. Adrian would push off consistently with his forearm in the bout, and was warned repeatedly for the excessive foul but a point was never deducted. In round 8 after a clean knockdown with Broner in the aftermath clearly hurt, a frustrated Maidana head-butted his foe while in a clinch. Adrien did his best attempt at an Oscar winning performance and flopped on the ground in alleged pain. It appeared that he was clearly looking for a way out of the fight, hoping to get the referee to disqualify the Argentine fighter. A point was deducted and Broner ws given time to recover.
COLE’S ONLY REDEMPTION
Gladly Cole didn’t fall for the act completely as Maidana was clearly ahead on the scorecards. As the bout went on Cole continued to allow Broner to push off, hold, and grind his elbow into the neck Maidana with barely a warning. At the end of round 11, Broner who desperately needed a knockout to win, landed a punch clearly after the bell. Cole didn’t even blink and told fighters to go back to their corners. If a referee is reluctant to enforce the rules for one fighter he will just continue to go about his business as was the case here.
KEITH THURMAN SHINES ON UNDERCARD
Welterweight prospect Keith Thurman (22-0, 20 KOs) dished out a thorough beating to tough journeyman Jesus Soto Karass (28-8-3, 18 KOs). Karass has a good moment in the opening minute of the fight staggering Thurman momentarily, however the native of Clearwater, Florida made an adjustment early and out boxed and out punched his foe round after round. Karass was down in the fifth, and a 4 punch salvo ended matters in round 9. Solid performance for the 25 year-old, as Karass had a two fight win streak coming in, and had only been stopped twice before; once by Maidana (TKO 8) and Gabe Rosado(TKO 5).
WBC super-bantamweight(122lb) champion Leo Santa Cruz (25-0-1, 15 KOs) won a hard fought unanimous decision over Cesar Ceda (27-2, 17 KOs). Seda had his moments, but Santa Cruz was the busier and more powerful of the two. Based on what I saw of Santa Cruz, who overall appears to be a nice kid with a good future, I’d keep him the hell away from WBA/WBO 122lb championGuillermo Rigondeaux (13-0, 8 KOs). The fight has mismatch written all over it.
Kevin Perry