In the ring, Adrien Broner is akin to a classic cherry red Porsche 911. The fighter known as “The Problem” is agile, sleek, lightning-quick, powerful and exciting. Straight out of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. school of fighting styles, his shoulder roll defense is stout, his counter-punching acumen is strong and he has the uncanny ability to finish fights standing over his fallen opponents.
Broner did not fail to impress last weekend with an stunning 5th round KO of Gavin Rees on HBO. However, while his Floyd-esque technique is nearly flawless, his “Money May” wannabe persona is holding the young boxing star back.
While Broner is definitely not the first fighter to rap on his way into the boxing ring, he’s probably the worst.
Roy Jones Jr. performed a song off his rap album on the way to the ring back in 2001. While nobody will confuse Jones with Shawn Carter, his lyrics were catchy, audible and generally about boxing. Others have entered the ring accompanied by rap stars as well, so it was no surprise that Broner chose to rap during his ring walk of the Rees. What was surprising is how terrible and embarrassing the performance was.
“Young n*ggas, but we live though!” [Inaudible mushmouth rapping followed by…] “Ohio!”
Over and over. It was truly a “smh” moment for boxing fans. The crowd looked stunned as Broner and his buddies screamed and danced down the walkway.
In the ring, Broner was all business. Outside the ropes, he resembled a bombing comedian who couldn’t decipher the crowd’s cringes and continued with the same awful jokes despite the lack of anything that remotely resembled laughter.
In the post-fight interview, the top-rated lightweight in the world reverted to his awful Mayweather impersonation and lowered the bar from his lousy ring entrance. After he began the interview with the tired act of having someone brush his hair, the 26-0 fighter had a lame, corny, wiseacre response for every question Max Kellerman gave him.
When Kellerman commented that the champ was hit often in the early rounds, Broner replied, “That’s a tough steak, but I ate it.” Kellerman looked confused. The crowd was all crickets.
Undaunted, Floyd 2.0 continued, “I had to see how much gas was in that Toyota he’s pushing.” After every question, the fighter gave another forced, precanned, comedy-starved answer until Mad Max realized he was wasting his time and ended the interview.
I get it. Broner understands the business of boxing, but it’s a shame to see some young, black fighters feel the need to act ignorant to sell tickets. He’s watched Mayweather turn into a filthy rich, boxing superstar on the laurels of his mouth as much as his skills inside the ring. While Mayweather’s persona is somewhat artificial, at least he got advice from the professional heels in the WWE before morphing from “Pretty Boy” to “Money” and does an excellent job at being the bad guy.
Other boxing legends such as Jones, Bernard Hopkins, Mike Tyson, “Sugar” Ray Leonard and “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali all captivated fans with their personalities. What separates the great mouths of boxing from Broner is that all of them knew when to turn on the character and when to be genuine.
Broner’s personality comes off as fake, calculated and tiresome. It’s as if he’s a poorly done parody of today’s spoiled athletes. It’s a shame. His skills are real. His talent is limitless, but if if Adrien Broner wants to be taken seriously as a champion, he needs to mature ASAP – or hire some better comedy writers. I hear Katt Williams may be available.
