Broner v DeMarco - Keys To The Fight

This upcoming weekend's main attraction in the USA is a WBC lightweight title fight between current champion Antonio DeMarco and outstanding former WBO super featherweight champion, Adrien Broner, at Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City. Dragon Boxing picks some keys to how and when the fight will be decided.

Antonio DeMarco

Deal with Broner's twinned attack.

DeMarco is ready for a war

The unbeaten Broner is a joy to watch, he has unbelievably fast hands and is also a big puncher (20 of 24 wins inside the distance), therefore there's so much for the opponent to deal with. His hand speed means he can deliver three or four shots at one time, with the constant pressure being too much for his recent opponents, albeit at a lower weight class. DeMarco is not the fastest at 135, and if he can't pressure his opponent and put him on the back foot, Broner will fight at his own pace and dominate the Mexican.

Make it a scrap.

Broner was able to dominate guys very easily at 130lbs, he was fed opponents that made him look good, guys with not much of a dig, who simply couldn't fight at a high enough intensity. DeMarco is not the best boxer in the world, but the way he won this title was making his bout with the talented Jorge Linares a war, he ground out an 11th round stoppage and finally got his world title.

Take Broner deep into the fight.

Like I've mentioned already Broner has been fed an average level of opponent who haven't been able to take him into the championship rounds, with just one of his last 15 fights going past six rounds. That fight was a controversial decision over the much smaller Daniel Ponce De Leon, and there has to be questions over how Broner will deal with a bigger guy for what could be a hard 12 rounds. 

Adrien Broner

Deal with the southpaw.

Broner should face the toughest test of his career so far

As has been mentioned already in my preview, the only guy to have given Broner real problems was Ponce De Leon, a southpaw, just like DeMarco. The question here has to be how does Broner deal with a southpaw, who can match him punch for punch in this weight class. That was a big night for Broner as it was his HBO debut and he may have been a little bit nervous, but that will have been the fight that Team DeMarco will have studied the most in the run up to this bout.

Moving up in weight.

Broner had to step up in weight for this fight, he struggled to get down to 130lbs for his last bout, and there was talk of him not doing the diet properly. There may not be too much of a question here though, Broner weighed 147 on the night of his last fight against Vicente Escobedo, which is the welterweight limit. He looked just as quick, and he should hold a real dig at this weight.

Stay solid.

One of Broner's many strengths is his defence, it's probably where all the Mayweather comparisons come from, they are very similar with the left hand low and a reliance on his excellent reflexes. Other than Escobedo's right hand, there was barely a glove laid on "The Problem" in his last bout, that suggests DeMarco could have a lot of trouble to land his left from the southpaw stance.

Prediction

Many are predicting Broner for the top, his and in and out of ring persona suggests he'll follow in Mayweather's footsteps as being the guy we leave to hate. This is going to be a real test of his credentials, DeMarco has far more high class experience (151 to 83 pro rounds) and his two major fights (RTD9 loss to Edwin Valero, TKO11 win over Jorge Linares) have both been wars, which is what he has to turn this fight into. I think Broner could surprise us all though, we know he's an excellent technical fighter, but I think he might show he's ready to tough it out in this bout. He'll start off quick, but DeMarco will come into it and make it the great fight we're expecting. However I think Adrien's skills will be the deciding factor (Linares outboxed DeMarco for long periods) and he'll run out a winner on the judges scorecards. 116-111.

Brits set to clock up the air miles

"The Special One" is set for a trip to the US

Overnight three big title fights involving British fighters in 2013 have come to the fore, the first of them being Devon Alexander defending his IBF welterweight title against Sheffield's Kell Brook. For the last two weeks there's been a lot of talk about where the fight will take place, Brook's promoter Eddie Hearn was desperate to hold the fight at the M.E.N Arena in Manchester, but it looks likely that the fight will be held in either the Barclays Center, New York, or the Staples Center in Los Angeles on the date of January 19. Last night it had been reported the fight could take place at the Scottsdale Center in Alexander's hometown of St Louis, a venue that he's enjoyed one or two debatable decisions in the past, but the likelihood of that seems to be improbable at the moment.

Cleverly is set for huge showdown with Hopkins

Bernard Hopkins is set for a ring return on March 9 and he is expected to be in a world title fight with either Beibut Shumenov, Tavoris Cloud or Wales' own WBO champion Nathan Cleverly. The Welshman was successful in his first US showdown last night, stopping Shawn Hawk in the 8th round of an entertaining bout in Los Angeles. It was Cleverly's most impressive performance for a while, and because of Frank Warren's relationship with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, Cleverly has to be the front runner in the race to fight "The Executioner". Nathan made a positive impact on the US fight fans because of his exciting style, and the win last night seems to have given him a great opportunity to fight the legendary Philadelphia fighter.

Murray set for daunting Argentinian trip

The final fight involving a British fighter is set to happen on April 17 in Argentina, with St Helens middleweight Martin Murray given the difficult challenge of fighting Sergio Martinez in front of an expected 55,000 sell out in South America. Murray will become the third British fighter to come up against Sergio recently, this after Darren Barker and Matt Macklin put up brave challenges against the world #1, but both falling short and getting stopped late on. Murray is set to fight on the undercard of Ricky Hatton's fight in two weeks time, with unbeaten Venezuelan Jorge Navarro in the opposite corner. It's a shame that Murray hasnt landed a fight with someone like Daniel Geale or Dmitry Pirog, they are excellent fighters in their own right, but he could very well be the proverbial lamb to the slaughter against "Maravilla".

Godding set for surprise Hamburg showdown

Godding has a huge opportunity on Saturday

This Saturday Wladimir Klitschko rolls into Hamburg as he defends his multiple world titles against unbeaten 27-0 Pole Mariusz Wach, a fight that the unified heavyweight champion will no doubt dedicate to his deceased legendary trainer Manny Steward, who's death last week hit the whole Boxing community. 

Undercards for Klitschko bills tend to be very weak in terms of action, the obvious reason being the fact they promote the bills themselves because of the TV deal they have in Germany and they don't have many guys signed to their stable, but there's one fight that catches my eye this Saturday. It's a welterweight showdown that pits the experienced former European champion Rafal Jackiewicz against unbeaten Bolton stylist Rick Godding. 

It's a terrific opportunity for the 18-0 Godding, who I very much consider a trade secret over here, not many people know about him, but the Steve Wood managed fighter is a cracking little fighter. He's only ranked #18 in the UK, but a victory here could see him pass many domestic contenders and land a crack at new British champion Frankie Gavin, or an all Lancashire clash with fellow unbeaten prospects Denton Vassell or Ronnie Heffron.

Jackiewicz is one of the toughest European welterweights

Godding has mostly fought on Frank Maloney bills, but has not had too much attention from TV companies, probably because he's more of a technical fighter than one punch knockout artist (just three stoppage victories). What has to be noted though is he has stopped two of his last four opponents, the power is starting to come on from the 27 year old, and although he travels to Germany as a big underdog, the Pole is way passed his best, as seen by the way Kell Brook dismantled him in October 2011.

Kell Brook destroyed the Pole in Sheffield

Clearly Rick has taken this because he feels he needs to be moving into title contention now, without the support of a big time promoter in the UK, he has had to look overseas and first and foremost, he must be applauded for taking this chance. Jackiewicz has improved his form of late, he's won his last four and that includes going over to Italy to stop Luciano Abis in seven rounds, becoming the European Union champion along the way. He's a real danger, but Godding has a solid 93 pro rounds of experience under his belt now, and I could definitely see an upset.

Interestingly this bill is being shown on ESPN this weekend at 10pm, I can't tell you if any of the undercard is being shown, but could this be a sign of things to come with ESPN venturing into more live Boxing events?

Cleverly hits LA

This Saturday (November 10) WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly makes his US debut, as he defends his title against South Dakota puncher Shawn Hawk, on a big bill at the Staples Center, Los Angeles.

Cleverly is making a name for himself in LA

Being Welsh and a massive Boxing fan, this is a very exciting weekend for myself, it's great to see British fighters going over to the States and this looks like an opportunity for Cleverly to really shine. Just like proposed opponent Ryan Coyne, Hawk looks like an opponent who will make the Cefn Fforest man look good. "The Sioux Warrior" is not that much of a step up in class from Nathan's last opponent Tommy Karpency, but to me this is not really about who he's fighting, it's about looking spectacular and getting the guys over in the USA excited.

Cleverly didn't tuck into this Man v Food type meal

Frank Warren and Cleverly have been touting for a fight with the likes of Dawson, Hopkins and Shumenov for a good year or so now, and if Cleverly comes through this test, then a showdown with a top five ranked opponent has to come. If you look at the Boxrec rankings now and you will see Nathan at #6 and Tony Bellew #5, which suggests that people should get off his back in terms of who he's fought, Bellew is an excellent fighter, but what the rankings suggest is that Nathan hasn't been too impressive of late and hasn't been fighting the right calibre of opponent.

Hawk is not a big name, but is a dangerous puncher

Hawk is ranked #50 in the world with the respected online rankings, and unlike Bellew's last opponent Edison Miranda, he doesn't have a great name in the sport. He's a serious puncher with 17 of his 23 wins coming early, but last time out he was outclassed over 12 rounds by then 8-0 former amateur standout Eleider Alvarez, therefore you're expecting Cleverly to win comfortably, but I've seen Alvarez fight and he's a devastating KO Artist, so this could be a test.

It's a great weekend of Boxing in the USA, Moreno v Mares on the same bill is a brilliant fight and I'm a massive fan of Leo Santa Cruz, who's also on show at the Staples Center, but this is the fight I've got my eye on and tracking the buildup already, there seems to be plenty of hype about Nathan over there. BoxNation are showing it over here and Showtime are expected to open their telecast with Cleverly's title defence. Warren has done a great job of getting him on the bill, now Nathan needs to deliver a top class performance, and move on to a huge fight.

Bute didn't impress in a light heavyweight venture on Saturday

Interestingly Lucian Bute fought at light heavyweight at the weekend and if that proposed rematch with Froch doesn't happen, I would think of him as a perfect test for Nathan, a fresh and hungry fighter would destroy the version of the Canadian-Romanian we saw at the weekend, he looked like a fighter with a lot missing from his game.

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