Adrien Broner confuses me and I feel that this sentiment now carries over to the collective boxing whole. Broner who was once viewed as the heir to the Floyd Mayweather crown and brandishing the name “Mr. HBO” now seems like another cautionary tale of giving a young fighter with promise and personality too much, too soon.

Broner who saw most of success at the lower weight classes fighting the likes of Eloy Perez and Gavin Rees is now finding that his lack of discipline and fighting at higher weight classes have exaggerated his flaws namely getting hit way too much. Broner was never a slick defensive fighter, but wished to emulate the “Philly Shell”/Mayweather style of defense yet couldn’t be as elusive as Mayweather with his footwork. The end result at the present moment is a trend I am beginning to notice in boxing especially with fighters like Felix Verdejo, Nicholas Walters and Rances Barthelemy, who have or are currently fighting fighters much smaller than themselves to offset certain limitation in their style. In many ways, Broner is the godfather of this style of cutting the maximum amount of weight to fight a smaller man and overwhelm them by being bigger.

I have little doubts that Adrien Broner could of been a Hall of Famer if he stayed at lightweight since he was that dominant, but it wasn’t good enough to try to chase greatness in the division he was dominate in. Whether it was for the money, fame, notoriety or just plain lack of wanting to live a clean lifestyle that could keep him at 135 lbs. Broner foolishly moved up to 147 lbs. to face Paulie Malignaggi in a fight he won, but many media members scored for Malignaggi. Broner would then take on Marcos Maidana who annihilated him dropping him twice before gassing out and allowing Broner to begin to walk him down late in the fight.

Most thought this would of been the wake up call for Broner as he was humiliated via Twitter and Instagram, but his next bout against Carlos Molina was absolutely terrible as he struggled with a fighter who was moving up in weight for one of the bigger paydays of his career and had been brutally beat by Amir Khan in his fight prior with over a year layoff. That is the tale of Broner, it is like the world sees the talent or the aptitude and wants him to learn his lesson, but he foolishly refuses time and time again.

After his latest stumbling against Shawn Porter in which he lost a dominant one-sided decision, Broner seemingly seemed unfazed by the result stating “…fans will still want his autograph.” Even worse is the fact that he was promoted as the star for the show on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC and didn’t attend the press conference, which is viewed nearly as a cardinal sin not to mention the fact that it seems like you’re running away from anyone who might tell you “what you have to hear.” Broner is a star, who has yet to do anything at the next level to deserve the label besides being a larger than life personality and after a while that gets boring, case and point how very few watch the reality shows/promotion around big fights.

Broner now is in a weird space, he has been on two NBC cards and neither fight has been regarded as good. One against John Molina, a limited fighter with 30 or so amateur fights and relies on conditioning and power to land one punch that changes a fight and Shawn Porter who just was far too big for him. Broner’s schtick seems even more contrived than ever and people are just tired of it or at least I am. Where is the big payoff for acting like a pompous ass? Because this version of Broner seems more human than star and his antics seem more like delusions than the manifestations of the greatness doing idiotic things in between moments of brilliance.

At his current weight class of 140-ish pounds he is not elite and needs to be guided carefully and even worse Broner reckless lifestyle seems to bring into question: what is his upside if he is not brining in ratings or ticket revenue?

It is all , but a given his next fight will be on NBC since why would you demote him now since you have put in the time to invest in him and “brand” him. The bigger question is now could guys like Danny Garcia moving up to 147 lbs. or Errol Spence Jr. who has yet to move into the elite level of division could face Broner as a way of testing them and get a solid win?

The tough reality is that Broner is a low punching fighter in a division in which fighters are known historically for a high output and even worse he seems to have plateaued and no longer seems to be improving. So at this point, whatever is in store for Broner will be his own fate and his own doing.