By Jackie Kallen

I am very much looking forward to the fights this weekend in Atlantic City. Both the main event and the co-main event interest me. There is a nice steady buzz about the Broner/DeMarco match and being a fan of both fighters, I am as curious as everyone else to see how “The Problem” Broner will fare at a heavier weight.

Photo: Pat Lovell – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions

Already being compared to Floyd Mayweather, the 5’7″, 23-year old bomber from Cincinnati is a force to be reckoned with. He is brash, cocky and has KOed 20 out of his 24 “victims.” He has high expectations for himself and HBO seems to concur. It has been said that he is just what this sport needs now.

DeMarco, on the other hand, is a softer-spoken, 26 year-old southpaw who has already suffered two losses in his pro career. With a 3-inch height advantage, he is the naturally bigger man physically. Their 71″ reach is the same, however, which makes for a good fight. Like Broner, he can bang and has a good KO ratio.

To me, however, Broner is hungrier and wants this fight so badly that he will go full-tilt to pull this one off. He has no desire to see his 0 go and after having had problems making weight at Junior Lightweight, he is much more comfortable with these extra five pounds to play with.

He claims that he will have no problem coming in at weight (or even less) so I doubt that the scale will present any issues. It will be DeMarco himself who promises to give “The Problem” some major problems. Gary Shaw has been saying that his protege DeMarco is ready for anything that Broner brings. As in most fights at this level, either man has the ability to win.

I pick Broner, though. I think he will definitely find DeMarco to be a worthy adversary and I expect some tough exchanges. But I find Broner to be a hard man to beat and I am just not that sure that DeMarco is the man to do it.

As for the co-main event between Jonathon Banks and Seth Mitchell, the man to watch is obviously Mitchell. Some are touting the 25-0 heavyweight as the next likely American to hold the world title. Others say that his undefeated record has been created by fighting guys like Dan Whetzel (9-14-2), Andrew Greeley (14-25-2) and Zack Page (19-26-2). His recent (April) defeat of Chazz Witherspoon was an impressive 3rd round knock-out. It made believers out of a lot of the naysayers.

Banks has a respectable 28-1-1 record, His only loss was a stoppage against Tomasz Adamek nearly four years ago. Since then he has beaten a series of average opponents, knocking out four of them. This is definitely his toughest fight to date. The question mark here is how the recent death of Emanuel Steward will effect Banks. They were very close and it will either hinder his performance or make him fight even harder as a tribute to Emanuel.

Jackie Kallen is a boxing manager who has been in the business for over three decades. Her life inspired the Meg Ryan film “Against the Ropes” and she was a part of the NBC series “The Contender.” www.JackieKallen.com, www.facebook.com/JackieKallen

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