After what seemed like an eternity of verbal back and forth between Paul Malignaggi and Adrien Broner, the 147-pounders finally put their mouth guards in and let their gloves do the talking as they battled over the WBA Welterweight Championship...then the mouth guards came out and the war of words continued, looked at like so by Twitter users:
Either way, Broner was able to cement his name with rare company as he won the title over Malignaggi in the epic encounter, but now as the pointed words between these two fade into the past, "The Problem" will look for another fight.
According to boxing promoter Richard Schaefer, via Michael Woods of ESPN.com, there are a ton of potential opponents for Broner, who has been dubbed "The Next Big Thing in Boxing." One of the first names Schaefer threw out was Marcos Maidana.
Maidana is a light welterweight who has a professional record of 34-3 with 31 of his wins coming from KO. Maidana's last fight came against Josesito Lopez, in which Maidana scored a sixth-round TKO victory to retain his WBA International Welterweight Championship.
Other names tossed around include the winner of the Andre Berto-Jesus Soto Karass bout, Amir "King" Khan, Devon Alexander "The Great" and even veteran "Sugar" Shane Mosley, who is coming off a comeback victory over Pablo Cano. All of them would be great matchups for the lightning-quick, Floyd Mayweather clone Broner.
Schaefer discussed the possibility of Broner taking on the winner of a possible Danny Garcia-Lucas Matthysse battle, which is still in the works, describing it as a "good fit for Broner."
One fight that we won't see unfortunately (at least not yet) is the dream matchup of Adrien Broner and his "Big Bro," Floyd "Money" Mayweather.
Not only is it a little early in Broner's career, at just 23 years of age, for him to face his mentor, but Broner has said it's a fight he doesn't want. He told Woods of ESPN.com that Mayweather is his role model and admitted that Money is boxing's "top dog."
Broner did put his Adrien Broner spin on it, though, and added "I want my big bro to retire undefeated. I don't want to hand him a loss."
But if you watched the Broner-Malignaggi bout, it appears that Schaefer won't have a say in who Broner fights. Broner said in the post-match interview that he wants the fans to pick his next opponent.
Whether that happens or not is yet to be seen, but one thing is sure: Broner put on a great show, earned a new championship belt and will have a ton of people chasing him down to take it away.
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