Despite unbeaten American Adrien Broner (24-0, 20) maintaining his unbeaten record by stopping Vincente Escobedo (26-4, 15) in the 5th round he didn't manage to keep his WBO Super Featherweight title following a farcical weekend for the man known as "The Problem" which brought into question his professionalism and attitude to the sport of boxing.
At the official weigh in for what was supposed to be a Super Featherweight title defence Broner weighed in at 133.5lbs, the following morning Broner was 143lbs (despite agreeing to be 140lb) and by the time of the fight he had gone all the way up to 148lbs. Whilst talented his inability to make the contracted weight (130lbs) or the agreed weight (140lbs) brings into a lot of questions for the man who was tweeting images of Twinkies, Sundae's and Twix Ice Cream bars in the lead up to the fight.
Escobedo, for his part in the pre-fight shenanigans used his position of being able to call the bout off incredibly well to get a very nice cash pay off (rumoured to be around an additional $50,000 on top of his original purse). Sadly however he was simply too small and too slow in the ring to give Broner too many issues with Broner winning the opening 4 rounds before closing the show in the 5th round.
Broner started the bout well by out boxing Escobedo and whilst Escobedo managed to land a number of jabs and straights of his own they simply had no effect at all on Broner. Although the first round was moderately close the second showed the power difference with Escobedo looking wobbly legged at one point. Broner would then bust Escobedo's nose in round 3. Whilst Escobedo fought the 4th round bravely he was imply out classed and Broner walked him down in round 5 detonating solid head shots time and time again before the referee finally waved the bout off.
The title, only on the line for Escobedo, is now vacant throwing yet more confusion on the Super Featherweight division. Despite losing the Super Featherweight title Broner is now in line to fight for the WBO Lightweight title against either Ricky Burns or Kevin Mitchell due to some simply bizarre ruling by the WBO.
Whilst I'm not one for cheap jibes, I'm considering calling Broner "The Weight Problem" in future if he ever misses weight again.
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