Adrien Broner vs Manny Pacquiao: will the Problem be a problem for Pac Man?

Whether you love him or hate him, Manny Pacquiao is boxing royalty, and his bout with four weight-class fighter Adrien Broner is set to set televisions ablaze this weekend, with both boxing legends gunning for blood and glory on the 19th of January. Pacquiao and Broner are both no strangers to controversy, and their match has been overshadowed by personal and professional troubles, but take away all the external fluff and what you have is two fighters ready to rumble.

Manny Pacquiao

Pacquiao made his boxing debut at the age of 14 as an amateur boxer on the streets of Manila, and racked up a win-streak of 60-2; when he turned professional, he carried on building on his previous win, and currently holds a record of 60-7-2, with over half of his wins gained through total knockout. Beyond that, Pacquiao is also the only octuple champion in the history of boxing: he holds titles in all eight weight classes, with quite a few of his accolades coming from the Big Four boxing sanctioning bodies and The Ring, an American boxing publication that has published boxer ratings since 1924.

Furthermore, Pacquiao’s ranked the #4 greatest boxer of all-time by BoxRec,  and with a reputation that precedes him into the ring, it’s no difficult task to see why: Pacquiao has built his legacy on being an insanely fast fighter, dishing out dizzying blows at a rate to stun the opposition, and watching slowed-down play-by-play shots of his latest bouts show that Pacquiao has only stepped up his game before the Broner match.

As boxing’s premiere fighter, Pacquiao is already a formidable opponent, but his training for the Broner match has been on a completely different level and, win or lose, Pacquiao is going to come out of this a fighter that you don’t get a second chance with.

Adrien Broner

Broner doesn’t have Pacquiao’s laundry list of awards and accolades, but he’s a match-setter in his own right: he holds titles in four of eight divisions, and he’s ranked as the fourth best welterweight worldwide, which could make The Problem a problem for Manny Pacquiao, especially if he exploits Pacquiao’s breathless pace to land some devastatingly hard punches; with over 75% of his wins through TKO, Broner could definitely land the punch to end all punches and stop the match right before it gets out of the gate.

Is it likely? No, but Broner has the expertise necessary to realise that a victory against Pacquiao is going to happen one of two ways: either hard and fast with a first or second round knockout, or a long, hard, punch-by-punch slog all the way to the judge’s call. If he manages to avoid and withstand Pacquiao’s upgraded training technique and turn his speed against him, Broner stands to take the belt. If he doesn’t, it’s far more likely that Pacquiao will KO Broner and add another victory to his collection.

This isn’t to say that Broner is a slouch; with a 33-3-1 record, Broner has a nice, well-rounded record standing behind him that shows he’s more than capable of undermining Pacquiao, but it’s worth pointing out that his second return to welterweight was bookended by disappointment, with a loss to lightweight champion Mikey Garcia in May 2017, and a draw against light welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets in November 2017. Coming into 2019 with a match against Pacquiao, knowing his previous record, seems like a risk, but as boxing is a spur-of-the-moment, twist-of-fate sport, it’ll take actual match day to see whether Broner will manage to defeat Pacquiao and become the eighth man to say, hand on heart, that he beat Pac Man in a match.

Predictions

Until the dice roll and the match is tossed, Pacquiao has the on-paper advantage: his overwhelming win record, coupled with the fact that Pacquiao’s pace is impossible to mimic, and difficult to beat, point the favour in his direction. Broner could pull an eleventh hour victory and defeat Pacquiao, either through a judge’s call or via first or second round TKO, but as of this moment, it’s Pacquiao all the way to take the championship home.

Follow Mr Green for the most up to date odds on the match, and don’t forget to back your fighter before match day – this isn’t something you want to miss out on!