Via Craig Daly: Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner needs a win next month over Omar Figueroa to keep his crumbling career going when the two meet on August 20 on Showtime. The 12-round battle between Broner-Figueroa will take place at Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
Broner’s last game, against lightweight Jovanie Santiago, failed to yield major ratings on Showtime in February 2021.
However, the network hasn’t given up on the 32-year-old former world champion yet as they are televising his match against Figueroa (28-2-1, 19 KOs) as the main event, not lining it up. It won’t attract attention buried somewhere.
If Broner loses to Figueroa, Showtime could stop showing AB matches, but I doubt it. As long as Broner doesn’t lose too badly to Figueroa, he’ll be given another shot by Showtime, as they seem to be sentimental people, holding onto AB for the things he accomplished 10 to 12 years ago when he was still is firing on all eight cylinders.
“He will try to make it a tough fight. Every fighter is differentbut I don’t think he will be hard to attack,” said Broner of Figueroa.
Broner is a bit unpredictable about Figueroa, making it an uphill fight. The only thing Figueroa will do that Broner won’t like is throw a lot of punches, forcing him to work harder than he wants and what he can do.
We’ve seen in Broner’s 12-round one-sided defeats to Manny Pacquiao in 2019 and Marcos Maidana in 2013 that he doesn’t like pressure.
Broner isn’t physically equipped to throw a lot of punches, so he collapses when fighting multi-throwers and forces him to work hard. You can expect Figueroa to fight that kind of fight because that’s his game.
Figueroa have lost their last two games to Yordenis Ugas and Abel Ramos by 147 and looked awful in both of them. In defence, Figueroa had nothing to stop Ramos and Ugas’ fouls, which is why he was defeated in both teamfights.
Broner isn’t as good as either of those fighters at this stage in his career, and he’s never been at their level. Figueroa doesn’t need to worry about being beaten by Broner like it did against Ramos and Ugas.
In other matches on the card, lightweight rivals Batyr Akhmedov and Alberto Puello contest the vacant WBA belt, and WBA super featherweight champion Roger Gutierrez will defend the title again Hector Garcia.
Subsequent matches are much more interesting than Broner vs. Figueroa, but those aren’t household names, so fans won’t get too excited about matches in the build-up.
