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By: Sean Crose
“I’m gonna be a hundred-percent honest with you, Brian,” former world titlist Adrien Broner told Showtime broadcaster Brian Custer. “I ain’t with none of this shit they got goin’ on.” And with those words, a Zoom video conference to promote Broner’s August 20th fight with Omar Figuera turned into something entirely different. “I feel like Al Haymon and Stephen Espinoza is bullshitting,” Broner continued, “because why is we doing a press conference on the computer?”
As far as Broner was concerned, other fighters connected with his advisor, Haymon, and Showtime Sport’s honcho Espinoza, receive far better treatment. “They don’t do Floyd’s shit on no fuckin’ computer when he fight a YouTuber,” Broner exclaimed. “They don’t do nobody else shit on the computer, but they wanna do my shit on a computer. So, that’s telling me they don’t give a fuck about me. So, when you say it’s fuck me, it’s fuck y’all. And at the end of the day, that’s what I really just came here to let y’all know.” But Broner wasn’t done speaking his mind yet. “Anybody can see it,” the fighter continued. “At this point ya’ll bullshitting. Ya’ll been supposed to make this fight. Ya’ll given us dates, you keep pushing our date back. Like, come on, who the fuck do a six-month camp? Ya’ll trippin’.”
And with just a few more words, the once highly regarded Broner left the interview. “I’ma get the fuck up on out of here,” he concluded, “and go back to sleep ya’ll.” Custer tried telling Broner that online press conferences have been common since the Covid Pandemic, but Broner wasn’t interested in speaking further. Mike Stafford, Broner’s trainer, remained present and took questions instead. There’s no doubt the press conference was memorable, but probably not in the way the people behind Broner-Figueroa expected it to be.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the 34-4-1 Broner was considered boxing’s “next big thing.” Broner never reached the heights of Floyd Mayweather, the man he was supposed to replace as the defining fighter of his era, but he did quite well for himself, winning titles in multiple divisions and being a top television attraction. Broner’s behavior, however, has always been an issue for the man, as the Ohio native has often gone beyond being merely obnoxious. And while the criticism Broner lodged on Tuesday may or may not hold up under scrutiny, it’s clear that the fighter known as “The Problem” isn’t always his best advocate.
