How does anyone let a 21 year old kid who is more of a Roy Jones, jr clone named Adrien “the Problem” Broner with not much experience at the top level go straight to a 30 year old, peaking Daniel Ponce De Leon? What the hell? How do you go from a draw in Cincy who is still blwoing out dudes who should be in round one
to an HBO co-feature?
Oh yeah. Because of this guy:
No. Not the ass kisser on the left. That’s one Al Haymon on the right. The man behind a lot of the top guys in the sport from Floyd on down. The problem is that Al seems to move his guys into spots they aren’t ready for. Jermain Taylor against Hopkins ring a bell? Al had him. And say what you want about who won, in the end it hurt Taylor because he jumped up in class too soon, got owned by Hopkins mentally down the stretch and damn near almost knocked out, and ended up not having the long, fruitful career many expected of him.
Andre Berto is a perfect example of a dude who got a belt way too soon and now is stuck being a “champ” with no one to fight, no way to develop without getting crticized, and whose growth is totally stunted.
Now Broner, a talented kid no doubt, is being thrown to the wolves with Ponce De Leon. Golden Boy probably didn’t make the call here. It was Al Haymon who recently signed the kid.
This is either a huge mistake or Al knows something none of us do. I think Daniel Ponce De Leon, a huge puncher, is going to be a much better fighter than Haymon realized. That power and experience can wreck anyone at anytime.
I’m saying right now, Broner gets through but I think he might be worse off for it. This is too much too soon. But HBO is Al Haymon and Golden Boy’s world. So we get a kid we’ve never seen on a stage this big, going right to a stage this big. Someone clone Bob Arum’s matchmakers. We’re going to need them
