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Boxing Star Adrien Broner Loses It, Refuses To Accept Loss to Pacquiao

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In combat sports like boxing and mixed martial arts, one of the most essential qualities a fighter must have is what the film “Rocky III” famously referred to as the “eye of the tiger.”

It’s that combination of mental toughness and absolute belief in oneself that is arguably more important than the ability to throw a punch. It’s the same fundamental concept that underpins morale in a military unit and decides the fates of wars and of nations.

And when your belief in yourself gets decisively shattered and you get your butt kicked on national television, part of a seven-fight run where you win only three of them?

Adrien Broner, who got beaten like a piñata by Manny Pacquiao and who is 3-3-1 in his last seven fights as a result, wasn’t quite willing to accept that his opinion of himself is … well, let’s just say “not rooted in the facts.”

When Jim Gray interviewed him after that latest defeat at the hands of the seemingly ageless Filipino champion, Broner took umbrage.

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Broner was left, stripped of his dignity, telling a 60-year-old sportscaster that “I’d be 7-0 against you.”

As pathetic cries for help goes, that one’s only marginally less pathetic than if Broner told Gray he’d beat up his dead grandmother.

Pacquiao beat Broner from pillar to post for 12 rounds, winning an easy unanimous decision on the judges’ cards. This was not a case of an opponent rightly believing he’d been wronged and that boxing was a crooked sport rigged in favor of the promoter’s fighter.

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Gray even had to warn Broner that he’d cut off the interview if Broner kept up his temper tantrum, and when Broner pulled out that “7-0 against you” crack, Gray was true to his word.

Broner even took to Instagram to point to his lack of visible bruises as a sign that he’d somehow not been beaten like the old “World’s Most One-Sided Fistfights” sketch on “Robot Chicken.”

Comments on that Instagram post are golden.

One fan razzed Broner for “losing to a 40-year-old.”

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Another referred to Broner’s frequent clinching during the fight as “you gave more hugs than grandmother do!”

And several others simply called Broner a “bum.”

Broner is not only 3-3-1 in his last seven fights, but the three wins — against Khabib Allakhverdiev, Ashley Theophane and Adrian Granados — were against nowhere near the caliber of Shawn Porter, Mikey Garcia or Pacquiao, to whom Broner lost.

Broner hasn’t beaten an opponent worthy of serious consideration as a title contender since he beat Paulie Malignaggi way back in 2013.

But his ego outweighs his ability, so until someone figures out that they need to protect Broner from himself, he’ll be melting down on camera like a latter-day Mike Tyson threatening to eat Lennox Lewis’s children when Iron Mike was long past the point where he could be taken seriously as a fighter.

As for Jim Gray, who knows? Maybe even he could get a few good licks in on Broner these days.

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Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Birthplace
Boston, Massachusetts
Education
Bachelor of Science in Accounting from University of Nevada-Reno
Location
Seattle, Washington
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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