Broner vs Garcia Set for July 29th

Adrian “The Problem” Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) has his next opponent in his sights and that man is the World Boxing Council lightweight (135-pound) champion, Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs.) The event will go down at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on July 29 with the broadcast taking place on Showtime Championship Boxing presented by Premier Boxing Champions.

Despite having won three consecutive fights (with two ending by way of a technical knockout,) Broner is still trying to shake off his last loss to Shawn Porter via a unanimous decision. He also took a win over 18-5-2 (12 KOs) Adrian “Tigre” Granados in his last fight which is marred with controversy due to scoring as it was ruled a split decision.

The fight with Garcia will take place at super lightweight/junior welterweight (140 pounds) and ahead of the fight, the most major concern appears to be the 27-year-old Broner’s ability to even make the weight limit in the first place as he has failed to make 140 twice before.

The other knock against him appears to be that his impressive win-loss record is padded with victories against lesser-quality opponents (most of his previous opponents have at best a three-star rating on BoxRec.com with a lot more being one-star fighters) while Garcia recently picked apart Elio “The Kid Rojas of the Dominican Republic, scoring four knockdowns in the third and fifth rounds before putting him away in that fifth.

With those 30 KOs to his credit, scoring four KO/TKOs in his latest 6-0 run of fights, the elder 29-year-old Garcia has gone less rounds than Broner (178 rounds to 199 rounds) but has done so because he is statistically better at getting the job done with a KO rate of 89 percent to 67 percent in favor of Garcia.

As has been noted by BoxingNews24.com, the key for Garcia may be just a matter of pressure and time, allowing the strikes to simply add up. Depending on how rough of a weight cut Broner has, that could also come into play.

Whether the fight takes place also depends on if Broner can stay out of trouble as he has a criminal history that includes felony assault and robbery as well as contempt of court due to failure to appear for the trial related to those other charges.

Looking Ahead

Although odds are not out yet, Garcia is the obvious favorite according to various outlets as it seems that Broner is just a pit-stop on Garcia’s road to Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao takes on Jeff Horn in late July as well, but Garcia is also on their radar as well.

Pacquiao’s head trainer Freddie Roach said to BoxingScene.com in May:

“[Horn is] a good fight to see where he’s at and who’s gonna be next. The thing is, it’s kind of a tune-up fight for us and who he has next… Mikey Garcia’s brother came to me the other day and said to me ‘will you fight my brother?’ I said ‘sure.’ I love that fight. I don’t make the final decisions, but it’s a possible future fight. That’s what we’re looking for right now, a tune-up fight and then on to bigger and better things.”

Pacquiao fights at 147 pounds, but his team has no problem with him fluctuating to take on Garcia—but first comes Broner.