Career
Adrien Broner made his breakthrough as a professional boxer on May 31, 2008. It was indeed a dream start for young Broner who scored three consecutive first-round knockouts against Allante Davis, David Warren Huffman and Ramon Flores, respetcively. In his fourth match, against Terrance Jett, he won the fight in the sixth round and ended the year with a no-contest decision against Eric Ricker.
His career gained greater heights in the next couple of years as Broner won important matches against tough opponents. Some of the boxers he played against were Jose Alfredo Lugo, Eric Ricker and Angel Rodriguez.
By the end of 2010, Broner had played against Rafael Lora, Carlos Claudio, Guillermo Sanchez, and Ilido Julio, winning against all. All through the year, he played Tommy Atencio for nearly 13 times, stopping the latter in the first round itself for six times.
Broner’s career meteorically surged upwards after his fight against former Super Bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce de León on March 5, 2011. It was a close match between the two tough players, each proving stronger than the other. By the end of it, though the match was ruled in Broner’s favour, the unanimous decision was contested and became highly controversial.
After his contentious victory against Ponce de León, Broner’s next fight was a highly publicised one, against Top 10 Super Featherweight contender’s Jason Litzau on HBO’s ‘Boxing After Dark’ show. In the first round itself, Broner won the match, after thumping some hard hit punches on the Minnesotan.
Broner came into the limelight in November 2011 when he contested against Vicente Martin Rodriguez on HBO as part of double header. Broner comfortably defeated Rodriguez by knockout in the third round, thereby wining the vacant WBO Super Featherweight World title.
The WBO title made Broner an overnight sensation. He successfully defended his title against Eloy Perez, Top 10 Super Featherweight contender, in a match that was held in February 2012, by a knockout.
After the victory against Perez, Broner next fight was slated for July 2012 against Super Featherweight contender Vicente Escobedo. However, since Broner was over the 130-pound limit during the weight-in, he was stripped of his title. Nevertheless the fight wasn’t called off and Broner won it in the 5th round.
In November 2012, Broner made his debut in Lightweight division, against Antonio DeMarco, WBC Lightweight champion. Popularly known as Ring No 1 in Lightweight division, DeMarco was a world class player and an extremely tough opponent. However, Broner’s strong uppercuts coupled with quick combination movements left DeMarco startled. By the eighth, Broner seamlessly not just won the match, but also his second world title.
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He successfully defended his title in a match against former WBA Champion Gavin Rees in February 2013. Rees could not match Broner’s speed and his hooks and uppercuts and by round 3, he was slowly slumping.
In March 2013, Broner made his debut in welterweight division, challenging one of the strongest boxers of the league, Paulie Malignaggi. Malignaggi was the WBA welterweight champion and The Ring No. 6. The highly publicized match was attended by scores of people. Though Malignaggi started the fight aggressively, by the middle of it, Broner found his ground and bowled over the former champion with his power punches to win the title comfortably.
In October 2013, Broner faced his first loss as a professional boxer while defending his welterweight title. Despite being a favourite, Marcos Maidana was too powerful for Broner right from the first round itself. Though Broner tried to up his game, he couldn’t match Maidana’s punches and faced his first ever defeat.
In 2014, Broner made his debut into professional light welterweight division against Carlos Molina. Scheduled for 10 rounds, Broner won the match by a unanimous verdict. Broner’s next fight was against Emmanuel Taylor for the WBA International title. The match went until the 12th round after which Broner was declared victorous.
Broner returned to welterweight in 2015. His comeback fight was against former IBF Welterweight champion Shawn Porter. Porter dominated the entire fight, and eventually won it by a unanimous decision.
In October 2015, he announced his return to light welterweight and reduced his weight to 140 pounds. He aimed for the fourth world title, with a match against former WBA champion Khabib Allakhverdiev. Broner defeated Allakhverdiev by TKO and won WBA title in the 12th round.
Broner’s most publicized fight of 2016 was the one against veteran boxer Ashley Theophane. Broner successfully defending his WBA light welterweight title in the match. He ended the year by returning to welterweight yet again, this time for a match against Adrian Granados on Showtime Championship Boxing. Broner won a 10-round split decision, which was considered controversial.
He returned to light welterweight for a fight against WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia for the title. However, he lost the match by a unanimous decision, thus making it his first loss in light welterweight.
In 2017, Broner fought against Jessie Vargas, a former world champion in two weight classes, in a 144-pound catchweight bout. The duo fought it to a 12 round majority draw. While Vargas dominated in the first half of the match, Broner soon pulled up his socks and ruled the second half.
