Undefeated welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. (15-0, 15 KOs) is looking to add Adrien Broner’s name to his resume when boxing restarts. The 22-year-old Ortiz Jr. is called out out the 31-year-old Broner (33-4-1, 24 KOs) in a way by posting a six-year-old photo of the two on his social media site and asking his boxing fans if they want to see him fight him.
Immediately, Ortiz’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions responded, saying, “Easy dinero.”
For Broner to take this fight, he would probably need a big paycheck from Showtime and his adviser Al Haymon because he’s talking about wanting $10 million for him to return to the ring. AB is saying if he doesn’t get $10 million, then he won’t be coming back.
It’s probable that Broner will find his way back into the ring if his career in rap fails to bring him the money that he’s been enjoying in boxing. Broner easily could have a lot more money than he’s got now if he’d stayed in shape, worked on his conditioning, and increased his punch output.
If Broner could throw an extra 50 punches per round, he’d be hard to beat. When Broner was throwing four-punch combinations against Jessie Vargas, he looked sensational.
If he could have done that the entire fight, he would have knocked Vargas out; the same goes for Broner’s fights against Shawn Porter, Manny Pacquiao and Mikey Garcia, and Marcos Maidana. Those were all fights that Broner could have won if he’d throw sustained combinations and averaged 100 punches per round.
That’s something that Broner can practice on in the gym, and use in his fights. He needs to fight like the late Aaron Pryor and just throw nonstop punches. It’s doubtful that Broner can. He likes to eat, and he gets big in between fights. After taking all that weight off during camp, it likely leaves him weak.
On the positive side, if Broner were to beat Vergil Ortiz Jr, he would give him a depleted career a new surge of energy, and it could help him get bigger money fights.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. has recent wins over
- Brad Solomon
- Mauricio Herrera
- Jesus A Valdez Barrayan
- Antonio Orozco
He wants $10 million. The only way Broner is going to get that type of money is by beating fighters like Ortiz Jr, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Yordenis Ugas, and Terence Crawford, Speaking of Ugas, that’s who Ortiz Jr. should be calling out, NOT Broner. Ugas would be a hard fight for Ortiz Jr., and he might lose to him.
He’s trying to make a career as a rapper. There’s no word on whether Broner is making any money doing that. It will be forlorn if Broner throws away his final years as a boxer with the hope of becoming a rap star at 31.
Broner is 0-2-1 in his last three fights, and he’s incredibly lucky his record isn’t 0-4 in his previous four contests because he deserved losses against Adrian Granados and Jessie Vargas. He looked poor in both of those fights.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. is like a cross between Marcos Maidana and Jessie Vargas. He throws a lot of punches as Vargas does, but with the power of Maidana. Broner has a problem with his highly economical punch output. He conserves his strength by not throwing punches, and that why he keeps losing.
If Broner had let his hands go against Vargas, Maidana, Shawn Porter, and Manny Pacquiao, he would have had a shot at beating them. Unfortunately, Broner couldn’t do it, which suggests that he doesn’t have the engine to throw a lot of punches, so he covers up and tries to block shots.
Broner’s losses have come against these fighters:
- Marcos Maidana
- Manny Pacquiao
- Mikey Garcia
- Shawn Porter
