By Bart Barry
Saturday on Twitter @ShowtimeBoxing American bronerweight silver titlist Adrien Broner decisioned Adrian Granados by majority scores at Cintas Center in Broner’s hometown of Cincinnati whose crowd leavened Broner’s acts with applause enough to sway judges to give the hometown man a nod in a decision that was not egregious – as hometown nods go. Granados applied heat and humidity and Broner did not wilt and the fight was very good, marking consecutive weeks of broadcasting excellence for Showtime, double the PBC’s mark in 2016.
Adrien Broner is what we’ve got now and it behooves us to enjoy him and appreciate him best we can. Whither this new, sporting approach? Why, it’s not like anyone with access to YouTube from a codger aficionado to a teenage boxing naif could mistake this era for a great one; we no longer need to write disclaimers round the shabbiness of one’s competition – it’s baked in. It’d be graceless anymore to insist someone like Granados is a c-level guy who probably’d not’ve made it out the amateurs 30 years ago much less to a 10-round main with a “former four-division world champion” like Broner who at age 27 is in his physical prime and still going relief-by-scorecards with an opponent who couldn’t’ve gotten in the fourth round with a 2009 version of Manny Pacquiao or been kept out the hospital after confronting even a one-eyed Antonio Margarito.
Broner is not an elite fighter, however many world titles Richard Schaefer and HBO once conspired to win him; Broner is a gifted athlete with some elite offensive moves who’s plied the craft of leathering since childhood and learned some tricks thereby. Had his body and lifestyle allowed him to stay at 130 pounds or even lightweight, though, he’d be esteemed today more highly than Gennady Golovkin for a breathtaking streak of chloroforming every man in fewer than 10 minutes easy. But Broner took illconsidered chances and rose upwards to larger weights and purses and got exposed in the fairest sense of the word (as would Golovkin, truth be told) – or did you think it accidental nobody noticed Broner’s footwork was embarassing and his infighting consisted of forearms and tackling exclusively when AB dashed through Jason Litzau (28-2), Eloy Perez (23-0-2) and Antonio DeMarco (28-2-1)? Until Broner was made to retreat, in other words, nobody knew Broner didn’t know how to retreat and until Broner was unable to tremble an opponent with a single punch nobody knew Broner’s commitment to one combination took so much from him he’d need 15 seconds of breather when finished.
Perhaps Paulie Malignaggi knew it before he proved it in 2013, but Malignaggi has always had an elite-level eye whatever he is as a prizefighter.
Writing of whom, Malignaggi is good a place as any to start a reconsideration of Showtime in February of 2017. While HBO alternately hibernates, schedules starryeyed spectacles, and employs more Soviets than the Trump administration, Showtime quietly strung together two excellent main events in two weeks, which, given the current state of matchmaking, puts Showtime’s Feb. 11-18 in the running for Boxing Week of the Decade. Showtime did it on a budget, too, and did it on Twitter and announced, get this, future live streaming of sports – a technological hurdle most American broadcasters still claim insurmountable even while Brazilian models approach their third decade of webcamming. How in the hell Showtime will monetize Saturday’s online broadcasting excursion is anyone’s guess – I watched the match on my phone’s Twitter app, sitting in my car outside a coffeeshop, using a 4G connection – but then, aside from those aforementioned webcam models, who really has monetized an online service (as opposed to selling ads)?
Had Saturday’s match happened in Granados’ native Illinois before a partisan-Latino crowd Granados’ performance would’ve gotten him a majority decision which wouldn’t’ve changed his career trajectory or Broner’s more than a degree or two. Too many words and other resources are already committed to the Broner mythos to make him a welterweight gatekeeper yet, and too much evidence already has accrued on Granados’ resume to promote him as greater than one.
The match was there for Granados’ taking in the final rounds but he didn’t take it and showed fatigue enough to embolden Broner to finish effectively enough to deserve another go at a junior welterweight title if he can make 140. Broner may not finish fights effectively as he sometimes begins them but he does finish fights much better than his socialmedia persona anticipates: loud boorishness tends to crinkle when things get harder than incredibly easy, and Broner does not. Broner nearly came back on Chino Maidana in his first loss, and Broner dropped Showtime Shawn in round 12 of his other loss, and whatever badfaith kept Saturday’s match at 10 rounds while not-keeping it at 142 pounds, Broner brought every bit as much fighting spirit to round 10 as his lesstalented opponent.
To paraphrase Malignaggi in the closing rounds, say what you will about Broner, but he’s never in a bad fight. However that happens it’s good that it does – and may it continue.
Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry
