FORMER two-division world champion Gerry Peñalosa believes that his close friend Manny Pacquiao’s choice of fighting Adrian Broner is to keep himself ready for the bigger fight at hand.
“Manny always wants a challenge. Broner is very cocky, I think he wants to shut him up,” Peñalosa told SunStar Cebu.
Pacquiao, who’ll turn 40 on Dec. 17, announced last Wednesday that he picked Broner as his next opponent for a January fight in Las Vegas.
“That will be a good and exciting fight,” said Peñalosa, who’s now handling his own boxing promotional outfit - GerryPens Promotions.
The 29-year-old Broner was once dubbed as the next big thing. He started his career with a 27-0 record, winning three world titles in three weight divisions. In that span, he beat Paulie Malignaggi, Vicente Escobedo, Antonio DeMarco and Daniel Ponce De Leon. He however suffered his first defeat to Marcos Maidana. He would win his next three fights before another unanimous decision defeat, this time at the hands of Shawn Porter. Broner would bounce back and get his fourth division world title after a 12th-round stoppage of Khabib Allakhverdiev for the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) super lightweight belt. After racking up two more wins, Broner would lose to Mickey Garcia also by unanimous decision. His lone fight this year, against Jessie Vargas, was a majority draw.
“Broner will give Manny a challenge. Broner should not be taken lightly,” said Peñalosa. “But I think Manny has this. The important thing is his conditioning,”
Pacquiao is 60-7-2 with 39 knockouts, while Broner is 33-3-1 with 24 knockouts. EKA