Adrien Broner And Jessie Vargas Battle To A Draw In Brooklyn

Broner Rallies to Salvage Draw vs Vargas

By Jason Pribila:Stop me if you heard this one before. Adrien Broner is focused only no boxing. He had a really great camp, and fans should be prepared to see the old AB when he steps into the ring on Saturday Night, only to watch Broner fall behind on scorecards due to talking more and punching less than his B-Side opponent.

Yeah. I thought so, and I’ve long grown tired of watching this re-run.

But before we were able to put our signature on that narrative, Adrien Broner flipped the script and may have done enough by salvaging a draw that will earn him yet another opportunity to be on the marquee as a main event fight – even if it is a rematch with Saturday Night’s foe, Jessie Vargas.

The fight started out as many predicted. Vargas was much busier, charging forward behind flurries of punches – most of which were aimed at Broner’s body. Broner was able to block many punches, but his only counter attack was running his mouth.

Even though Vargas was throwing many more punches, Broner was much more accurate. So while Vargas landed more, Broner was landing at a higher percentage. Vargas is also a fighter whose heart fails to translate to power. When he would land clean punches, Broner never blinked.

Broner finally began listening to new trainer, Kevin Cunningham, and he started throwing combinations and landing with great success. When Broner stepped on the gas, Vargas was unable to answer.

The second half of the file was proving to be an exact opposite of the first half. Vargas was no longer working behind his jab, and he was instead loading up on single punches.

Broner buzzed Vargas several times, and he opened up a cut in the 11^th round. He had turned a restless crowd into a frenzied one anticipating an unimaginable stoppage.

With the fight on the table during the final round, Broner again fought defensively and he left is fate in the hands of the ringside judges.

Julie Lederman favored Broner by a score of 115-113, but she was overruled by a pair of 114-114 scorecards that would declare the bout a Draw.

Both fighters deserved kudos for putting on an intense give and take battle. However, when Jim Gray entered the ring, Broner remembered he was Broner, and reminded many why they dismissed him as a clown a long time ago.

He immediately tried to pull the microphone from Jim Gray while yelling about the fact that Vargas’ face was busted up more than his own. Broner had turned thug spouting off with insults that seemed pre-rehearsed.

It was childish, disrespectful, and it was quite frankly the kind of behavior that should warrant Showtime to suspend Broner from fighting on their airwaves for the distant future.

Fortunately, when Gray turned his attention to Vargas, fans were rewarded with an honest response from a proud yet disappointed fighter.

“We went at it for 12 rounds. If they want to do it again, I’m ready to fight right now,” Vargas said. “I felt I won the fight and was up by two rounds, but I didn’t judge this fight. I rely on the judges to give a good decision. They saw it a draw and I respect it.”

In November of 2012, Adrien Broner dismantled Antonio DeMarco at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Broner’s performance inspired DeMarco promoter Gary Shaw to declare that Broner would be the next Mayweather.

Broner never lived up to those accolades inside the ring, and I would have thought that only 5 years later, Broner was in a life and death battle with a fighter with a similar skillset as DeMarco. However, instead of looking sensational, Broner was lucky to escape with a Draw.

One would hope that a serving of Humble Pie would cause Broner to finally look inward and question why his skills have diminished so rapidly over a five year spiral, but instead Broner refused to consume the pie, told the baker to F himself, and requested the rematch take place in his hometown.

Unfortunately, if the rematch doesn’t happen, I’ll be willing to wager that we’ll see Broner back on Showtime long before Jessie Vargas.

Jason Pribila is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He could be reached for questions or comments at pribs2000@gmail.com or followed on Twitter.com @PribsBoxing