By Norm Frauenheim-
They’re promising a new and improved Adrien Broner on July 29 against Mikey Garcia, but Broner is promising what he has always promised.
“I’m coming to eff him up,’’ Broner said Thursday during a conference call for his intriguing 140-pound bout with Garcia at Brooklyn’s Barclays’ Center.
First, full disclosure: Broner didn’t really say eff. But you get the idea. Broner says he is older and wiser, but he’s as profane as ever in a business punctuated by punches and profanity.
“The hurt business,’’ says Broner, who repeated Mike Tyson’s apt summation of a brutal craft once known as The Sweet Science.
Not so sweet anymore, at least not for Broner, whose ups and down in and of the ring are an inseparable part of his story, perhaps his temperament and probably his motivation.
Maybe, he’s more mature, but there’s no doubt about the anger. Besides, you just wouldn’t know him without the F-bombs.
Any doubt about that was eliminated in the way he opened his segment of the conference call.
“At this point, eff the press,’’ he said. “They’re all against me. I’m ready to fight. …So, I’m ready to to get the eff off this call.’’
He didn’t, of course. Too effing much to say. Broner loves to talk. That said – and plenty was, Broner said he has worked to get beyond a long list of problems, including jail time. He has talked about leaving the “ghetto stuff” behind.
By that, he says he means to take “boxing more seriously.’’
Against Garcia, he’ll have to. Garcia, unbeaten and an emerging pound-for-pound contender in a talked-about fight with Vasyl Lomachenko, is the favorite.
According to some betting sites, odds favoring Garcia are as high as 7-1, despite a couple of key advantages that Broner holds in his capable hands.
He’s younger. Broner will celebrate his 28th birthday next Friday, the day before opening bell in Brooklyn. Twice beaten at 147 pounds, he’s unbeaten at 140. Garcia, a 29-year-old lightweight champion, has never been more than 138 pounds at a weigh-in.
The theory, however, is that Garcia has a more varied skill set. He has said he will outbox Broner.
“That’s a damn lie,’’ Broner said. “…He knows he’s not a better boxer than me.’’
Throughout the call, Garcia did most of the listening and some of the talking. He says he wants to fight the best possible Broner and all of the profanity seemed to say that he would.
“That’s exactly the Broner I want to hear,’’ said Garcia, who figures to hear a lot effing more next week.
