Adrien Broner article in Men's Journal...

Since he fights tonight, I figured I would link this for his fans http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/print-view/how-not-to-become-americas-next-great-fighter-20140428 Here is the first part of it, too long to post the whole piece. Hit the link above if you want to read the whole thing. How (Not) to Become America's Next Great Fighter By MARK JACOBSON May 2014 Adrien Broner has been so busy comparing himself to Floyd Mayweather, buddying up with big-name rappers, and posting clips of his strip club exploits that the one thing the pro boxer might have forgotten to do is prepare for the biggest fight of his life. This wasn't really happening, was it? Everyone was supposed to be in the club, surrounded by a boatload of babes, gin, and juice, big-chain millionaires paying tribute to the champ on yet another major display of his mad skillz. Instead, the Cincy Band Camp was huddled on a forlorn loading dock behind a crummy Texas stadium where the Spurs don't even play anymore, a thousand miles from home. Their leader, the 24-year-old welterweight champion, Adrien "the Problem" Broner, a.k.a. AB, as in "Always Ballin'," "About Big ****," and "All Benjamins," wasn't basking in the glow of victory but rather lying in an ambulance waiting to go to the hospital, beer splashed onto his shiny robe by jeering fans, the internet already gloating over his defeat, family and friends in shock. Only hours before, the Band Camp -- B. Luck, G2x, 6-4, Dre-Day, E-bunny, Nuke, and the rest -- were biding their time in the lobby of the San Antonio Rivercenter hotel. The harsh, monkish months of training were over. All that stood in the way of the expected post-bout blowout was "Madonna," i.e., Marcos René Maidana, the challenger from Argentina's Sante Fe Province, which is a long way from the Band Camp's English Woods and Mount Auburn stomping grounds in the Cincinnati hood. It wasn't as if the grizzled, jailhouse-tattoo-festooned Maidana was a pushover. He had a well-earned reputation as a dangerous puncher with either hand, scoring 31 knockouts in his 37 fights, with wins over top guys; there was little doubt the Argentinian would be the hardest hitter Broner had ever faced, not that anyone in the Band Camp, least of all AB himself, seemed worried. "I'm undefeated. Twenty-seven wins. Twenty-two knockouts. Young. Fast. Top five, pound for pound. Three-time champion," Broner declared, mantra-like, the night before the bout as he sat in the hotel restaurant wolfing down a burger and fries. "I'm the one everyone wants to see, the draw," he boasted, referring to the fact that his previous 2013 cable TV outings had attracted more aggregate "eyeballs" than any other fighter. He was already a millionaire, with a future prospectus that was sky's-the-limit. "I'm the guy who be taking over boxing once Floyd Mayweather retires...heir apparent to the best in the world," Broner proclaimed at the fight weigh-in. Maidana was nothing but "a speed bump," "easy work," "a short day at the office." True, Maidana had beat some good fighters, but now he was facing "an elite" fighter. He was in with AB, "one hellacious Athletic Bastard," the Problem that could not be solved....