Adrien "The Problem" Broner experienced a serious setback vs. Marcos Maidana in his last fight, not only taking the first loss of his career, but getting humbled in his first ever bout against a man with true welterweight power.
Not all is lost for the brash former 147-lb. champ though, as his mentor Floyd Mayweather Jr. thinks the loss may wind up being good for his career. For his "baby brother," it is a matter of rehabilitating his relationship with fans, who turned on him fully after his beating.
"As far as Adrien is concerned, he still has a lot to learn. When I spoke to him after his fight, I said you're gonna have people that like you; you're gonna have people that dislike you. The thing is this, I have fans that like me and I have fans that don't like, but you gonna respect me. Once people get to throwing bottles and throwing beer on you, throwing different things at you at the fight, you're losing respect from the fans."
Mayweather said that the loss is far from the end of the world for him. "To be honest, the loss made him more famous. The loss brought him more notoriety. So like I said before, fame can be a gift and a curse. Now, it's a gift. It brought him more notoriety."
It is unclear what Broner's next move will be. He has called for an immediate rematch, but that wasn't stipulated in his contract and the impressive win may earn Maidana a shot at Floyd himself. Broner's trainer Mike Stafford said that a return to 140 lbs. is not out of the question.
"A lot of people say they want him to fight 140, or 135. He don't have no problem making 140, but I don't think that it will be at 135," said Stafford. "Adrien is going to find anybody that's going to be pay per view. He wants to get on pay per view to show everybody that he had a bad first round. I just want him to get himself together. He's good, and he'll be back."
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