By Keith Idec
Even if promotional squabbles and premium-cable battles weren’t obvious obstacles, Bob Arum doesn’t think boxing consumers would be overly interested in the Manny Pacquiao-Adrien Broner bout Broner publicly discussed last week.
“As far as Broner is concerned, let’s be honest about Broner,” Arum told BoxingScene.com. “There’s all this nonsense and all this media attention that he got. The kid is a mediocre fighter. I mean, he got exposed by Maidana. And then in his last fight against Molina, a guy who can’t fight and hadn’t fought for over a year, he struggled with the guy. So, I mean, he can call out Manny and so forth. The point is, he’s not competitive with a Pacquiao.”
After struggling early in their 10-round junior welterweight fight Saturday night, Cincinnati’s Broner (28-1, 22 KOs) out-boxed Carlos Molina (17-2-1, 7 KOs), of Norwalk, Calif., and won a unanimous decision by large margins (100-90, 99-91, 98-92) on the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Marcos Maidana undercard at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The win marked the 24-year-old Broner’s return from his first professional defeat – a 12-round, unanimous-decision loss to Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) in their fight for Broner’s WBA welterweight title Dec. 14 in San Antonio.
Arum, whose Top Rank Inc. promotes Pacquiao, remains unimpressed.
“I don’t make anything of Broner,” Arum said. “I think Broner is a very mediocre talent that’s been built up and was exposed by Maidana.”
Arum added that he doesn’t think Broner will ever face Maidana in a rematch, despite that Maidana is contractually obligated to box Broner again if Broner so chooses.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
