You always hear the same remarks by Adrien Broner apologists, “Let your hands go!”
They keep making excuses for his losses, but Showtime boxing commentator Al Bernstein recently came up with an interesting compubox stat, Broner actually threw more punches in his last 5 fights than Manny Pacquiao in his last 5.
I decided to go back and watch some of Broner’s most recent fights and he actually threw a lot of good combos.
When Broner fought Jessie Vargas a fight that was scored a DRAW, but most boxing fans believe Vargas did enough to win, Broner actually threw a lot of punches in that fight.
The reason Broner doesn’t win has to do with his inability to control the range of the fight. Pacquiao beat Vargas with less punches because it’s not about how many punches you throw, it’s about how many punches land clean.
Pacquiao would throw a lot of combos and they would land clean and pass the guard, some other fighters will just throw punches and they get blocked or miss.
Since Pacquiao suffered a one punch KO to Juan Manuel Marquez, he’s fought much smarter, and picks his shots better.
As Pacquiao aged he learned to be more selective with his punches and tries to set up shots instead of just overwhelming his opponents like he used to when he was younger.
Broner’s main weakness is closing the distance and getting into punching range. If he cannot walk you down he will just stay in the middle and try to counter you as you throw combos on him. If you rush in on him he will throw a snapping counter or an uppercut, he has similar upper body speed as Canelo Alvarez, but he doesn’t have the defense of the Mexican star.
Canelo and Adrien both fight with a more flat footed style, the only difference is Canelo has very slick upper body movement and defense, whereas Broner just covers up and doesn’t use the shoulder roll properly.
Broner knows how to shoot the uppercut or straight right lead as a counter off the shoulder roll position. Like many observers have sad in the past he is a poor mans version of Floyd Mayweather Jr.
When fighters attack him he will just cover up or wait to counter them. When he walks guys down he will try hop-step forward and than violently fire off one or two shots like a body punch or a one-two combo up top.
The Pacquiao vs. Broner fight will come down to who can set the pace, and control the distance.
Punch output will into play once one fighter can control the tempo and impose their gameplan.
If Pacquiao can become the ring general and punch Broner with enough power to keep him honest, it would be a Pacquiao fight and look for him to fire off combos through the guard of Broner.
If Broner is able to get a Pacquiao who aged overnight and no longer has his legs, it could be Broner’s chance to catch an aging legend at the right time.
At this point the fight is 50-50, because we don’t know if the great Pacman has aged. If Pacquiao looks explosive and still has his speed and power, it could get nasty for Broner.
