HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA – JUNE 7: Blair Cobbs lands his punch against Adrien Broner during their … [+]
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Adrien Broner’s time as a serious competitor in boxing, and possibly his career in general, is over, and if it isn’t, it probably should be.
On Friday night in Hollywood, Florida, Broner was soundly beaten and dropped by Blair Cobbs, resulting in a unanimous decision loss (97-91, 96-93 x2). Adding to the disappointment, the majority of us who witnessed and scored the fight found it far from the close call the official judges deemed it to be.
To say Broner was a mere shadow of his former self would be an understatement. Here’s the knockdown, which happened in the second round. Cobb’s clean left hand sent Broner careening to the canvas.
Broner looked terribly slow, flabby, and generally out of any reasonable fighting shape–both mentally and physically.
While both men are 34, Cobbs looked younger, quicker, and more serious about his craft. The fight could have been scored a 10-0 shutout for Cobbs. Being generous, Broner might have won one round of the entire fight.
To Broner’s credit, he still has a solid chin. He absorbed the left-hand shots all night, only went down once, and finished the fight. We saw Broner survive an even worse beating from Marcos Maidana in 2013 and go the distance.
Although the loss dropped Broner’s record to 35-5-1, the Cincinnati native has never been stopped. Cobbs improved to 17-1-1 as he now has two consecutive wins over former world champions Maurice Hooker and Broner, though both men were clearly past their primes when Cobbs beat them.
It is unclear if Broner will ever fight again, but assuming there is an offer, he will likely take it as there is still a fleeting interest in his fights. Cobbs did everything he needed to parlay this opportunity into another money fight.
If he can get one or two televised fights with known fighters, he will have maximized his chance to turn the fight with Broner into multiple paychecks. Suppose you’re eager to see a more serious matchup on Saturday evening.
In that case, Xander Zayas will headline a Top Rank on ESPN card when he faces the most formidable challenge of his young career against Patrick Teixeira.
After watching Broner on Friday, I think that fight will represent the other end of a boxer’s career spectrum.
