By Ryan Maquiñana
Gary Shaw has vowed not to let Adrien Broner get away with coming in overweight a second time in two bouts in the event the flamboyant fighter faces lightweight titleholder Antonio DeMarco on Nov. 17.
“If we make the fight, and [Broner] doesn’t come in on weight, we don’t fight,” said Shaw, who promotes DeMarco. “Money doesn’t motivate us that way.”
Two months ago, Broner was stripped of his belt when he tipped the scales well over the 130-pound limit ahead of what was to be his last junior lightweight title defense against Vicente Escobedo.
When Escobedo threatened to pull out of the bout, some last-minute negotiations—including an increase of more than double his purse—salvaged the matchup, a lopsided fifth-round stoppage in favor of the much heavier Broner.
“I think they underestimate Antonio DeMarco,” Shaw said of Broner and his team. “We’ll see if Broner wants the fight or not. There’s been a lot of talk until now. Let’s see if he wants the fight.”
DeMarco, meanwhile, preferred to relegate the talk to the specifics in the ring.
“Everything is going well with negotiations,” he said. “They seem to have a date already in November 17.”
While he admitted he had not yet studied Broner’s bouts on film in detail, the reigning champion was quite complimentary of his potential challenger.
“He’s a great fighter, and I’m looking for the biggest fights,” DeMarco said. “This is the type of fight that’s going to make me an elite fighter.”
DeMarco is coming off a stunning first-round technical knockout of John Molina two weeks ago in Oakland, Calif.
Ryan Maquiñana writes a weekly boxing column for CSNBayArea.com. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Ratings Panel for Ring Magazine. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his blog at Norcalboxing.net, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.