Latest Incident Suggests a Dark, Downward Spiral for Adrien Broner
Adrien Broner likes to fashion himself a fighter who is “About Billions,” but he might soon need to change that to “About Bail.”
Broner’s wild ride, and rapid downfall, peaked on Thursday afternoon when TMZ reported that the troubled four-division champion has been charged with felonious assault and aggravated robbery (with a gun) in his native Cincinnati.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
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Broner, once the protege and potential heir apparent to pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr., is currently in Washington D.C. where he is scheduled to defend his WBA Junior Welterweight Championship against Ashley Theophane Friday night on Spike TV as part of a Premier Boxing Champions card.
RingTV's Mitch Abramson tweeted that the fight remains on and that Spike has been assured that Broner will be available:
“It’s a legal matter that Broner will have to handle with his attorney," said Tim Smith, PBC's vice president of communications, in a statement, per Abramson
That’s an extremely weak response. You’d have expected the PBC to at least pay lip service to the severity of the allegations or point out that it holds its fighters to high standards and, if true, would not accept this type of behavior.
But, alas.
Broner is accused of beating and robbing at gunpoint a man who allegedly had won significant cash off him in high-stakes bowling bets at a Cincinnati bowling alley in the early-morning hours of January 21.
Court documents state that Broner allegedly waited outside the alley, retrieved his gun from his car and demanded his money back, punching the man, rendering him unconscious and then taking the cash from his person before fleeing the scene, per TMZ.
The matter is also being adjudicated as part of a civil lawsuit filed two months ago.
There’s a ton to process here.
Broner, it’s worth noting, has exhibited something of a pattern of increasingly disturbing behavior over the past year that has included at least two gun-related posts to social media and an increasingly volatile public relationship with his former “big brother” Mayweather.
Last June, Broner found himself in hot water when he posted a picture of himself to Instagram wearing a red hoodie and holding what appeared to be a handgun just days after nine African-Americans were gunned down in a highly publicized church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.
It was later shown that the gun was in fact not real, but that didn’t take away from the insensitive and tone-deaf nature of a gun-related post coming so soon after a national tragedy in an increasingly polarized political climate.
Six months later, Broner stepped in it again with another troubling (and what seemed unhinged) post to Instagram, this time coming in the form of a video where he brandished both a handgun and an assault rifle along with a chilling caption.
He wrote, per TMZ: “since nobody want to help me be in a better place in life I'm back on my bull s--t F--K EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY!!!!!!” He also hashtagged his post #AboutBullets.
And now we have him accused of a violent crime involving a gun.
The pattern has become increasingly grim and dark for Broner, who took the fight with Theophane as something of a proxy war with Mayweather, with whom relations have drastically soured in recent weeks and months.
Mayweather took to FightHype earlier this week to lash some further criticisms at his former protege, who had recently posted a video of himself throwing his change into the air while making a purchase at a local Walmart store.
“The person gave him his change back, I guess he had bought something and he threw the money or the change up in the air like, 'Why are you giving me change back? You don't know who I am?' Actually, a lot of people in the store didn't know who he was,” Mayweather said, per Ben Thompson.
Mayweather also criticized Broner for coming up short in his two biggest fights, decisive losses to Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter.
He has yet to comment on the latest allegations, and Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions, which is promoting Broner-Theophane, said he was not aware of the details and Broner would need to consult a lawyer, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.
A lawyer might not be all he needs.
Broner looks like a troubled young man who is coming apart at the seams in full view of the public, which means that boxing shouldn’t be his concern nor that of the people around him. He needs help, and we hope he gets it before this takes any more dark turns.
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