By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Adrien Broner believes the biggest fight for him remains a pay-per-view showdown with Manny Pacquiao.
The difference is, Broner thinks Pacquiao and his promoter, Bob Arum, must pay him more than Broner previously requested because Pacquiao needs the polarizing Broner’s star power to bolster his sagging pay-per-view numbers. Broner pointed to Pacquiao’s next low-profile fight, April 22 against Australia’s Jeff Horn, as evidence that Arum must come back to him with a better offer than he made last year (reportedly $4 million guaranteed).
“Most definitely, he needs me,” Broner said Saturday night before Showtime’s doubleheader at Barclays Center. “What did his last numbers do? Well, I know. But it’s not for me to tell. What did he get paid for his last fight? Hello! But I’m not here to talk about anybody’s purse or their buys. I just know the status of me and a fight with Pacquiao. I know what it’d do. It’d do crazy numbers. And, you know, I’m a helluva self-promoter. I’m gonna talk.
“And there’s a difference when you’ve got Triple-G on pay-per-view, and they’re doing 24/7. And you’re trying to promote it in the U.S., but he don’t speak English. Then if you put me on pay-per-view, and then everybody’s watching me, they understand everything I say. So it’s just a difference. It’s just a difference.”
Broner referred to Pacquiao’s pay-per-view fight against former WBO welterweight champ Jessie Vargas on November 5.
Arum hasn’t officially announced how many pay-per-view buys Pacquiao-Vargas did, but it is widely believed to have performed worse than Pacquiao’s previous pay-per-view appearance against Timothy Bradley. Pacquiao-Bradley drew right around 400,000 buys on April 9.
Before Arum could consider Broner again for a Pacquiao fight, the 27-year-old Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) first must defeat Adrian Granados (18-4-2, 12 KOs) in their February 18 fight in Cincinnati, Broner’s hometown. Showtime will televise their fight as the main event of a tripleheader from Xavier University’s Cintas Center.
Broner figures Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) will more than handle his part against the unknown Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs), the No. 2-ranked challenger for Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title.
“I don’t even know who that guy is, no disrespect to him,” Broner said of Horn. “I’ve never seen him fight, but if he got a chance to fight Manny Pacquiao he’s obviously not a bum. But at the end of the day, we all know what a fight like Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner will do. So they need to stop dragging they feet and make it happen.”
When reminded Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s adviser, has stated that Pacquiao’s representatives offered him a substantial sum to oppose Pacquiao last year, Broner refuted that claim.
“Women lie, men lie, numbers don’t,” Broner said. “At the end of the day, they know what I told them. And now they’re biting their words, and now they’re saying they wanna fight Adrien Broner. And now they have to come around the corner, and I’m still in the same spot. Like I told everybody, make my numbers right and we’ll have a helluva fight.”
The brash Broner acknowledged, though, that no matter how much money he is offered, there isn’t a bigger fight for the former four-division champion than one against the Filipino superstar.
“At this point, most definitely, I feel like the biggest fight for me in boxing is Pacquiao,” Broner said. “But, you know, that Jew Bob Arum – I like Bob Arum, though. Just get the numbers right and we’ll have a helluva night.”
When asked what “the right number” would be, Broner was elusive.
“That ain’t how negotiations work, OK?,’ ” Broner said. “You know, I’m a businessman. I’ve offered what I’ve offered, and then they walk away. And once you come back, you have to meet my requirements now, OK?
“So let’s say mine’s a little higher now, because I know you need me. Or we could just stay where mine was, and make the fight happen. But Arum knows he’s gotta eat his words and come back around and make this fight happen. Or just keep having duds and keep losing money.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
