By Edward Chaykovsky
British junior welterweight Ashley Theophane is confident that he'll defy the odds by beating Adrien Broner for the WBA light-welterweight title on April 1. Theophane (39-6-1, 11 KOs) will challenge Broner (31-2, 23 KOs) for the title in the headline fight of the season two debut of Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV.
Theophane is promoter by former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. - who is also close friends with Broner.
Mayweather used his influence to secure the world title opportunity for Theophane and predicts the 35-year-old Brit will be the next world champion for Mayweather Promotions.
"I'm very sure that Floyd is going to give me advice on what I should do against Broner and he should be giving me instructions during the fight as well," Theophane told Nick Parkinson. "Broner likes to use the shoulder roll like Floyd. I've sparred with Floyd five or six times so I know how to deal with that and Floyd believes that I can fight Broner the same way in the ring."
Broner is a four division world champion with his two career defeats coming against former welterweight belthodlers Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter. He captured the vacant WBA title at 140 last October with a twelfth round TKO of Khabib Allakhverdiev. Broner has also captured titles at 130, 135 and 147. The bout with Theophane will be his first defense of the WBA gold.
While Broner says the upcoming fight will be an "easy" showcase, Theophane is not paying any attention to the trash talk.
"He [Broner] has been putting stuff up on social media about me and I find him entertaining. I'm 35 and he won't be able to get under my skin. I'm used to people talking like him because I've been in America for a while now," Theophane said.