It goes without saying that people have had mixed opinions about the possibility of Manny Pacquiao facing Adrien Broner on January 19 in Las Vegas. The rumored matchup appears to be heading towards FOX or SHOWTIME pay per view.
Pacquiao caught everyone’s attention when it was revealed that he would be signing with powerful adviser Al Haymon in an attempt to make a rematch with Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather defeated Pacquiao over 12 rounds in 2015 and Pacquiao has since been craving a rematch.
Mayweather sparked rumors by taking to social media in September to tell the world he and Pacquiao would be fighting again. But instead of facing one another right off the bat, a tune-up appears in play for each man, and that’s where Broner came into the picture.
It’s a meeting of two men who have won titles in multiple weight classes, Pacquiao in eight and Broner in four, yet Manny appears to be a heavy favorite. Broner technically hasn’t won a fight in over a year-and-a-half. He fought Jessie Vargas to a draw earlier this year and lost a twelve round decision to Mikey Garcia in July of 2017.
Still, the pre-fight hype would be memorable and the action figures to entertain. And despite no longer working with his legendary fighter, trainer Freddie Roach, who trained Pacquiao for several years, still sees the purpose of such a fight.
“Umm, that’s a pretty good fight,” Roach recently told Fight Hub. “I wouldn’t pick a winner in that. I think that Pacquiao should win the fight but at ‘47 I’m not [sure]; I’m not involved anymore so I’m not in the mix, so I don’t know what he’s doing. So it’s hard for me to give you an answer without being there.”
In his last fight, Pacquiao demolished Argentinean slugger Lucas Matthysse in seven one-sided rounds. Pacquiao was too strong and destructive for Matthysse on this evening, scoring a TKO for the first time since his victory over Miguel Cotto in November of 2009.
“I saw the Matthysse fight,” said Roach. “He looked like he fought very well and, I mean, Broner is nothing like that, though. I mean, there’s no similarities at all with those two really opposite guys.”
This is an interesting matchup and despite Broner being ten years younger, it is Pacquiao who many feel has more left in the tank. Broner simply hasn’t been able to get off his punches as much in recent fights, so this seems to lend people to believe that Pacquiao will be a nightmare style matchup for him due to his volume-punching and his ability to punch from all kind of angles.
Expect much more opinions on this one to come in, especially if the fight gets officially announced.
