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By: Sean Crose
“At this point it don’t matter who they get,” Adrien Broner told Brian Custer on Tuesday’s Last Stand Podcast. “I’m in shape and I’ve been training my ass off.” Broner was supposed to face Pedro Campo on February 13th, but Covid-19 knocked Pedro Campo out of the fight. Still, Broner intends for the show to go on. He’s been focused, after all. “Almost forty,” he said when Custer asked him how much weight he has lost since he’s been back in the gym. “I was heavy,” Broner admitted. The man has also claimed he’s given up drinking, which caused him to be depressed.
“It was bad, man,” Broner said of his drinking. “You wake up and the first thing you do is take a drink. From that drink it just leads on to another one and another one.” He made it clear to Custer, however, that he’s emerged from the darkness. “It was a hard cycle to stop” Broner claimed, “but I did it.” Those who quit drinking tend to have a moment when they realize it’s finally time to get off the merry go round. Broner appears to be no exception. “I woke up one morning and said I’m done,” he told Custer, “and I’ve been done ever since.”
As for those who claim Broner is over the hill, the Cincinnati native made it clear he feels he’s far from an has been. “I’m only thirty-one,” he said. To Broner, any question of him being past is prime is puzzling. “How can I be past my prime?” he asked. “I’m very young. I haven’t taken much punishment.” Referring to his time away from the ring (he hasn’t fought since dropping a decision to Manny Pacqiuao in 2019), Broner claimed he learned a bit about himself. “I figured out no one can do it but me,” he said. “I had to get off my ass and go to work.”
Broner was once one of the hottest commodities in the sport of boxing. Fortunately, for him, he still draws plenty of attention. In a sense, an Adrien Broner fight is still an event. Having won titles in numerous divisions and showing much promise will do that for a fighter. As will having a showy personality. Although he’ll have to return to winning regularly in order to truly be seen as reinvigorated, Broner certainly appeared to have the confidence needed when speaking to Custer. Whether or not that confidence will lead to a resurgence for the fighter known as “The Problem” be answered soon enough.
