By Niall Doran
BRONER VS JOHN MOLINA – WHAT TYPE OF PROBLEM WILL TURN UP?
This weekend will see the return of the controversial Adrien Broner when he takes on the always tough John Molina Jr, in what should be a fairly entertaining light-welterweight scrap. Of course, this weekend will also see the return of big time boxing to prime time network television with this fight and the Keith Thurman vs Roberto Guerrero fight, been part of the new Premier Boxing Champions series on NBC in America. The series has also been picked up by BoxNation. Al Haymon wherever he is, must be getting a little excited!
The Broner vs Molina match up is an interesting one for a few reasons. In many ways, the jury is still out on Adrien Broner. ‘The Problem’ has been on a bit of a rebuild mission since his dismantling at the hands of Marcos Maidana a few fights back and since has recorded two decent enough points wins over Emanuel Taylor and Carlos Molina. Although the victories didn’t exactly set the world alight, they were enough to get Broner over any mental hurdles that may have existed since the first loss of his career. Judging by his demeanor when he arrived at the MGM earlier this week, as always, he doesn’t seem like a man struggling for confidence or under too much pressure:
JOHN MOLINA JR
John Molina will certainly be well up for this one and will no doubt be wanting to bounce back strong, coming off a ten round unanimous decision loss to Humberto Soto back in September of last year. Molina has five losses on his record (27-5-0, 22KO) but don’t be fooled by this, his losses have only come to quality opposition for the most part.
He’s a man who has definitely mixed in good class in his career to date and certainly represents danger when he’s on form, whom Floyd Mayweather protege Mickey Bey can attest to – when Molina stopped him in the tenth round last summer in a very impressive display. Molina can pop and Broner is no stranger to visiting the canvas, so this by no means will be a push over for him if’s he has taken Molina lightly.
PREDICTION AND BETTING ON THE FIGHT
I don’t think he will have done however. Fighting on NBC prime time will be a big deal for him and he knows that this is a golden opportunity to rebuild his broken reputation on such a grand scale since the fallout from the Maidana fight. Prior to that many people considered him a future pound for pound great, so I think he’ll have worked hard in preparation for this one – as a big year lays ahead with a four fight deal signed on NBC.
I’m still not convinced Broner is a fully fledged light-welterweight yet but I can see him having too much skill for an outmatched Molina, in this regard. If I were a betting man I’d be looking for a Broner points win or maybe a stoppage late on. The safe money would to be to put Broner down just to win outright as part of a double, treble or accumulator this weekend. For British and Irish fight fans, William Hill are offering around the 1/10 mark at the moment – a fairly safe bet.
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