Adrien Granados' Trainer is Confident They Shock Adrien Broner

By Edward Chaykovsky

George Hernandez, regarded as one of the best trainers in Chicago and the head man in the corner of Adrian Granados, feels very good about their ability to claim an upset victory over former four division world champion Adrien Broner on February 18th at the U.S. Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Granados, 27 years old, had trained with Broner in the past. In 2014, he spent two months helping prepare Broner for a defense of his WBA welterweight title against Marcos Maidana. The fight took place on December 14 of that year. After twelve rounds and two knockdowns, Broner suffered his first career defeat at the hands of Maidana.

Since that defeat, Broner has been jumping between junior welterweight and welterweight. He has captured world titles at 130, 135, 140 and 147.

Broner (32-2 and 24 KOs) has been out of the ring since last April, when he picked up a TKO win over Ashley Theophane. Numerous legal and personal issues have kept him out of the ring.

'El Tigre' Granados (18-4 and 12 KOs) is a on career high, with five consecutive victories including a notable win against then undefeated Amir Imam in late 2015 in Quebec, Canada. Imam - who was the WBC's mandatory challenger at the time - selected Granados as a tuneup opponent. It was one of the bigger upsets of 2015.

"Adrian has been training in California and Phoenix and he is well prepared, training here in Chicago with Semajay Thomas (a super lightweight with a 7-1 record) and some others that we brought in for him. I don't care what the public says or what they try to put in Adrian's head. I sent him over to spar with Broner and he spent two months training with him, so who is going to know Broner better than Adrian?," said Hernandez to Alejandro Yanun. 

Hernandez is hoping that a lot of boxing fans from Chicago will travel over to support Granados as he steps in the ring before a hostile crowd.

"We're going to go to Cincinnati to Adrien Broner's home, so now what we need is for the people of Chicago to get in their cars and their trucks and go to support Adrian," said Hernandez.